Glen Lake and St. Mary schools crowned spelling bee champions last week.

Molly Flerlage, an eighth-grader at Glen Lake, won the school bee by correctly spelling “centennial.” Earlier, classmate Erika Bailey spelled “psychoanalysis” in a one-round playoff to take second place, with seventh-grader Skylar Gleason third. The other top spellers who qualified for the Leelanau County Spelling Bee include Emily Sherwood, eighth grade, fourth place; Amanda Lodge, eighth grade, fifth place; Josh Romanowski, sixth grade, sixth place; Corrine Gretzmacher, seventh grade; seventh place; and Anne-Marie Dunklow, sixth grade eighth place. The alternates are seventh-grader Keefer Edweard and fifth-grader Andrew Garner.

Sixth-grader Ryan Schaub won the St. Mary bee by correctly spelling “bangle” after it was misspelled by second-place finisher Chelsea Amalfitano. He then spelled “mongoose” correctly to win.

There was a four-way tie for third place involving seventh-graders Emily Burgess and Grace Keilty, sixth-grader Andrew Mikowski and fifth-grader Justin McSawby. Classmate Blaise Mork came in seventh, and the alternates are seventh-grader Sam Holmes and fifth-grader Christopher Kohler.

The Leelanau County Spelling Bee, which is sponsored by the Leelanau Enterprise, will be held Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium in Suttons Bay. The regional bee will be held March 14 at the City Opera House in Traverse City.
GLEN LAKE students hold certificates showing that they competed in the school spelling bee.QUALIFYING FOR the county spelling bee were St. Mary students (front row, from left) Emily Burgess, Justin McSawby, Chelsea Amalfitano and Ryan Schaub (winner); and (back row, from left) Sam Holmes and Chris Kohler (alternates); Blaise Mork, Andrew Mikowski and Grace Keilty.