Traditionally the top three spellers at the Flathead County Spelling Bee advance to state.

This year, however, only one will make it to state because of a registration technicality.

After 11 rounds of competition on Tuesday, Swan River School eighth-grader Tucker Nadeau finished as champion, Stillwater Christian School eighth-grader McKenna Stahlberg was second and Whitefish Middle School eighth-grader Trevor Woodward placed third.

The top three received trophies.

Only Woodward may advance to state because his school paid the $103 registration fee that goes to the not-for-profit Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Schools were notified in advance that they would have to pay the fee for students to compete at the state level.

Fifteen out of 26 participating schools in the county bee paid the fee.

County Superintendent Marcia Sheffels said that a new state director reviewed Montana’s contract with Scripps and discovered the state hadn’t paid registration fees for several years.

Sheffels was notified in an email from the state director that Scripps is strictly enforcing the registration fee rule.

“I think it’s very unfortunate,” Sheffels said, adding that she hoped the spellers had a fun time and felt rewarded for their efforts and recognized by the community.

Sheffels said county superintendents statewide have questioned the necessity of the advance payment by schools whether or not they had winners. She hopes it will not reduce the number of participants in future county spelling bees.

This is Sheffels’ ninth and last year as county superintendent before her term ends in January 2015.

Before the spellers began competition, Sheffels walked them through a warm-up round.

“Spell ‘remarkable,’” Sheffels said. Spellers did. “Do you know that describes yourselves?”

After an introduction to the rules, 26 spellers in grades four through eight took the stage at Glacier High School.

From “chinchilla” in the first round to “Wagnerian” in the final round, Nadeau earned his victory. He took second at the 2012 county bee.

“I’ve been to the county spelling bee the last three years,” Nadeau said. “I was hoping for first, it feels good.”

Nadeau attributes his word wizardry to a love of reading. To study for the spelling bee, he wrote down lists of words.

“I think it really cements it in your brain to write it down,” Nadeau said.

Nadeau said spelling bees are a great way to promote reading and literacy.

This was the first year Stahlberg and Woodward have competed at the county level.

They both said there were some nerves at the beginning, but they quickly went away.

Woodward noted that he probably always will remember the word he missed, but noted, “I’m just happy to get this far.”

The 2014 Treasure State Spelling Bee is March 22 at Montana State University-Billings.

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