Jacobson had to correctly spell “vulgarity” and then his final word before the contest ended.
Placing third out of the 26 competitors was Faith Stull of Walkerton Elementary. Stull is in fifth grade.
Four contestants were eliminated in the first round — and by round five, there were 13 still on stage. That number dwindled to eight by round seven.
Jacobson said his sister Chloe was one of the last two contestants in the 2007 contest. Jacobson said, “She makes me study.” He said he is a pretty good speller and gets A+’s in spelling in school.
According to the contest coordinator Brenda Baker, contestants are given a list of 500 words to study prior to the contest. She said they use 150 of those first.
“If 150 words from the original list are used, then they would go to a list of words that the contestants had not seen,” she said. Baker teaches in the Argos School system.
Pronouncer for the event was Argos teacher Beth Cohagen. Several times during the contest Monday, Cohagen was asked to repeat the pronunciation of a word and/or use the word in a sentence.
Judges Jan Chittum and Gary Calhoun followed along on the word list as the students spelled round after round. Calhoun was only asked one time to read the definition of a word from the dictionary.
The contest is sponsored each year by the Pilot News. Publisher Rick Kreps welcomed the contestants.
Fifty-six area businesses also helped to co-sponsor the event. Each contestant was given a “goody bag” and a shirt.