HODGDON, Maine — A new spelling champion has been crowned for Hodgdon’s Mill Pond School.
Eighth-grader Joseph Scott collected the school spelling title after he bested a field of 12 other classmates for the championship Friday morning at the Hodgdon Middle-High School gymnasium. Scott successfully spelled the words “exception” and “curtains.”
The runner up was sixth-grader Hunter Sanford. Both students will compete in the Aroostook County Spelling Bee, which will also be done in an online format.
The County Spelling Bee is traditionally held at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, but the college has declined to host the event this year because of COVID-19, according to Hodgdon Bee Master Stephanie Harris.
The event was slated to be held Feb. 10, but may now be held virtually if another site cannot be acquired.
During Friday’s bee, Harris explained this year’s event once again featured a modified format as spectators were not allowed to participate in person. Instead, parents of those student spellers were able to watch via the online video conference platform Zoom.
Mill Pond students participating in the school’s annual spelling bee Friday were, front from left, runner-up Hunter Sanford and champion Joseph Scott; second row, Jake DeHahn, Brayden Treadwell, Michael Fitzpatrick, Aiden Hogan, and Cody James; third row, Michael Spooner, Gabriel Dasilva, Noah Richardson, Gemma Wells, and Lyndsay Little; and top row, Autumn Quint. (Joseph Cyr | Houlton Pioneer Times)
Last year, the event was also held virtually with some of the contestants participating in person, while others joined via video conferencing.
Scott and Sanford went head-to-head for seven rounds before Scott was declared the winner. The entire event lasted just 10 rounds and was completed in less than 45 minutes.
Other students participating in the event were: sixth-graders Autumn Quint, Michael Spooner, Aiden Hogan and Noah Richardson; seventh-graders Lyndsay Little, Brayden Treadwell, Gabe Dasilva and Gemma Wells; and eighth-graders Michael Fitzpatrick, Jake DeHahn and Cody James.
