Seventh-grader Rileigh Rose won the Lower Dauphin Middle School spelling bee after correctly spelling "assertion" in the championship round on Dec. 6.
The bee went 16 rounds before it narrowed down to Rileigh and eighth-grader Abigail Foran. Rileigh and Abigail went head-to-head for two rounds before the winner was declared.
Prior to their faceoff, the girls had to wait three rounds as seventh-grader Lucius Cabera and Kylie Houser competed for third place, with Lucius earning the honor. The school's top three finishers will advance to compete in a 50-word written test and 50-word vocabulary test that will be held at the WITF Public Media Center. No more than the top 35 spellers will participate in the WITF Grand Championship Spelling Bee, an oral spell-down which will then be broadcast on television. The winner from that bee will qualifiy to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The middle school spelling bee featured the top 27 spellers in the school. When the field narrowed to Rileigh, Abigail, Lucius and Kylie after 11 rounds, the spellers took a brief break before resuming for another five rounds.
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