He spends a lot of time reading and writing at Sussex School, where he's an eighth-grader, but he didn't spend an instant studying for Thursday's Missoula County Spelling Bee. Apparently, he didn't need to.
“I didn't really do any studying,” he said. “I feel like I do better just coming into these things without worrying about it much.”
When Chirag Patel, an eighth-grader at St. Joseph School, went out in the eighth round on the word “medusa,” the contest came down to Patterson and Barlow. Alec spelled “liturgy” and Jay puzzled out “euphonious” in the bee's ninth round, but Alec stumbled on the rather obscure word “calefactory” in the next round while Jay slid by with the relatively easy “impeccable.”
He then had to spell one more word. He repeated the word, then spelled “catalytic” without hesitation. Although Patel and Patterson fell in the late rounds, they'll still make the April 1 trip to Billings for the 41st annual Treasure State Spelling Bee.
Barlow said he'd competed in the Missoula County contest as a fifth-grader, but had taken a few years off before trying again this year. His top finish was a bit beyond his expectations.
“Oh definitely,” he said.
More than 50 students from the fifth to eighth grades took part in the bee at Hellgate Middle School on Thursday. They disappeared in shifts through the early rounds, missing words such as “decrepitude,” “atoll” and “hexagonal.”
By the fifth round, only eight students were left, and “interim,” “adonis” and “insurgency” whittled the group down to five. “Pippin” tripped up Nicholas Monroe in the sixth round, and “atrocity” took out Colby Morris, leaving only Patel, Patterson and Barlow.
Patel disappeared on “medusa,” the pronunciation of which he appeared to mishear, leaving only Patterson and Barlow.
Patterson asked for both a definition of the word “calefactory” - it's a heated common room in a monastery - and for its use in a sentence, but he put an “i” in place of the “e.” Barlow then spelled “impeccable” correctly, leaving him one word for the win.
He then relied on all the studying he hadn't done to easily spell “catalytic.”
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.
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