Eighth-grader Sophia Skwarchuk had the “vantage” of being a master speller at the Flathead County Spelling Bee.

“Vantage” was the winning word for the Stillwater Christian School student, making her champion of the annual bee Tuesday at Flathead High School.

“My goal was just to make it to the state spelling bee,” Skwarchuk said. “I was pretty excited and I’m still pretty surprised.”  

This year’s competition lasted seven rounds and featured 26 of the valley’s top spellers. The spellers advanced to the county level after qualifying in classroom and school spelling bees.

Swan River School seventh-grader Tucker Nadeau took second place and third place went to Peterson Elementary fifth-grader Madison Paszek. Ian Lacey, a fifth-grader at Kalispell Montessori, was named an alternate.

The top three spellers advance to the Treasure State Spelling Bee March 23 in Billings.

Neither Skwarchuk nor Nadeau are novices at the county spelling bee. Skwarchuk placed third last year; Nadeau also placed second a year ago.

For all three spellers, the strategy is to visualize words in their minds. From there, they might ask for a definition, sentence or origin, which the spellers said they used in cases when they needed more time to think.

Skwarchuk studied word lists that were organized by language of origin.

“It kind of helped you visualize it if you asked for the origin because you can remember where you saw it,” Skwarchuk said.

Having competed at state last year, Skwarchuk has an idea of what to expect: “The words were a lot harder.”

And she hasn’t forgotten the word she misspelled.

“I got out on the word ‘keest.’”

When spelling, she usually sticks to her first instinct and tries not to second-guess herself because the first instinct is usually correct, Skwarchuk said.

For state, she plans to study a list of “challenge” words provided through the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

“I didn’t know about that last year,” Skwarchuk said.

Nadeau practiced for the county spelling bee by writing out lists made up of hundreds of words and sounded everything out. Once he reached the microphone on stage, “I just go into the zone,” Nadeau said.

This was the first time competing at the county level for Paszek. Paszek said she studied the word lists but plans to have her parents quiz her to prepare for the state competition.

“I really want to win,” Paszek said.

Flathead County Superintendent of Schools Marcia Sheffels was impressed with the level of poise under pressure.

“They know so much about the English language and have incredible backgrounds,” Sheffels said.

Some of the students’ word power is attributable to the three top place-winners being avid readers.

“I read a lot,” Skwarchuk said. “So I guess my spelling has always been pretty good, or so I’m told.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.