CHARLOTTE — Under bright lights and seated on stage before a crowd, 11 students from seven Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools competed Tuesday in the 2023 MACS Spelling Bee.
With friends, parents and judges looking on in the auditorium of the MACS Fine Arts Center, the fourth- through eighth-graders did their best to spell out words pronounced to them when they took their place at the microphone.
“B-r-e-a-k-n-e-c-k.” That is correct!
"E-n-g-a-g-e-m-e-n-t.” That is correct!
“B-e-m-m-u-s-e-m-e-n-t.” A bell rang. Incorrect.
At times they asked the moderator, Catholic Schools Superintendent Dr. Greg Monroe, to use the word in a sentence, what part of speech the word was, or just to repeat it.
And one by one, students encountered words they found elusive – and after misspelling, took their seats off stage.
Two students remained in the 11th round: St. Patrick fifth-grader Vernon Corquaye and St. Mark seventh-grader Anna Haynes. Both misspelled their word – so both remained in the competition.
For seven more rounds, they spelled their words correctly or both missed at the same time. When one missed and the other was correct, the correct speller then missed their “championship” word – and the spelling bee continued.
The event came down to a final word.
“O-B-T-R-U-S-I-V-E.”
That is correct!
Anna emerged the champion.
With Vernon serving as her alternate, she now advances to represent MACS Schools Feb. 15 in the Independent district-level Spelling Bee for North Carolina, sponsored by the Carolina Panthers/Scripps National Spelling Bee. That event will determine who will represent Independent Schools in the statewide spelling bee on March 5. The top four winners there advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The seven Catholic schools represented Tuesday were Holy Trinity Middle, Our Lady of the Assumption, St. Ann, St. Gabriel, St. Mark, St. Matthew and St. Patrick. The alternate winners for each school were also on hand to cheer on their fellow students.
— SueAnn Howell. Photos by Troy Hull
