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County's best spellers compete

GIRARD - Kathy Bland had been to the Crawford County Spelling Bee twice before, but she had never finished higher than fourth.

That's why Bland, a seventh-grader at Girard Middle School, knew she could relax a little bit when Huinam Bae, a fifth-grader from George Nettels Elementary School misspelled etiquette, giving Bland her first chance at the county title and a trip to Topeka for next month's All-Kansas Spelling Bee.

She calmly spelled etiquette correctly, then languish, and was named the champ of the event, which took place Friday at Girard High School's Shireman Performing Arts Center.

"I knew I could spell etiquette and I was just hoping that the second word wouldn't be something I didn't know," Bland said after winning the bee and becoming one of 105 students to advance, scheduled for March 25 at Washburn University's White Concert Hall.

Bland was one of 41 representatives from Crawford County schools at the event, which started at 9 a.m. and finally wrapped up four hours later after her and Bae correctly spelled nine words each after the field was trimmed to two.

It was the second straight runner-up finish for Bae, who finished second at the school bee at George Nettels to earn the berth to the county bee.

And while Bae will likely not go to state (she is the alternate in case Bland can't go), her feat is nothing short of amazing.

Bae moved to Pittsburg from her native Korea in August and has had to study hard just to tackle the new language.

The students in the bee proved why they earned their trips to Girard, tackling words like acclimatize, chasm, chenille and adolescence.

And the words they missed weren't easy.

The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net) February 25, 2006