Chase Bryant Wins Sixth Annual County Spelling Bee

Chase Bryant, a fifth grader at Northside Elementary School, won the 6th annual DeKalb County Spelling Bee Friday night at DeKalb County High School.
Bryant, son of Don and Teresa Bryant of Smithville was among 31 students from the fourth grade to the eighth grade, who participated in the contest.
He correctly spelled the words “Stollen” and “Bolivar”” in the 36th round to claim the championship.
Makalee Ruch, a sixth grader at DeKalb Middle School, was the runner-up in the contest. She is the daughter of Joe and Melissa Ruch of Smithville..
Students from DeKalb Middle School, DeKalb West School, and Northside Elementary School recently competed at the school level to become eligible for the county competition.
Along with students from twenty nine other counties, Bryant and Ruch will represent DeKalb County in the Tennessean Regional Spelling Bee on March 4th at Belmont University in Nashville.
The winner of the Regional Spelling Bee will compete in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. May 26th through May 28th with all expenses paid by the Tennessean Newspaper.
The purpose of the County Wide Spelling Bee is to help students improve spelling skills, increase vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.
Other students competing were as follows:
Northside Elementary- Fourth graders Sara LaFever and Baylee Phillips and fifth graders Hailey Cannon, Caleb Fox, Morgan Gross, Kaitlin Rhea, and Kyra Trapp, in addition to Chase Bryant.
DeKalb Middle School- Sixth graders Haley Davis, Lenzi Dickens, Justin Johnson, Makayla Starnes, Alex Thompson, and Jacob Washer, in addition to Makalee Ruch and eighth graders Jessica Acuna, Kyra Dickens, and Martelia Tallent.
DeKalb West School- Fifth graders Morgan Vickers and Hailey Walker; sixth graders McKenzie Gann and Bruce Wilson; seventh graders, Cara Mosely, McKenzie Poteete, Crystal Vickers, Evan Ward, and Dylan Young; and eighth graders Nathan Gohs, Taylor Leach, Justin Manley, and Austin Miller.