There was no wavering with uncertainty when Whitefish Christian Academy seventh-grader Allison Miller spelled the winning word “fluctuation” Thursday at the Flathead County Spelling Bee.

Out of 26 spellers and after nine rounds, Miller placed first followed by Kalispell Middle School eighth-grader Jaden Attard in second. Hope Compton, a home-schooled sixth grader, placed third. This is Miller and Compton’s second year competing at the county level and Attard’s first.

Compton’s jaw dropped with excitement when she learned that the top three county spellers advance to state. Attard’s moment of surprise came when all three spellers were awarded trophies.

From the first word “easel” to the last, “fluctuation,” spellers successfully tackled words such as “ravel,” “behoove,” “sputnik,” “boorish” and “gung ho.”

Miller said the words became more familiar toward the end of the competition.

“I started noticing that once they got to the last few, they started doing words that were on the study list I studied off of, so I recognized it,” Miller said.

It wasn’t a surprise that all three like spelling.

“And grammar,” Miller said.

During competition the three spellers took advantage of clues such as definition, the word used in a sentence, and language of origin.

“I like to do that just because it’s interesting,” Miller said. “It’s always fun to know where a word came from.”

Language of origin is key in pronunciation as well as how to spell some words.

“I was kind of nervous because it said with the German words ‘w’ is probably pronounced like a ‘v,’” Attard said.

Another strategy Attard and Compton used was visualizing the words in their minds before spelling them aloud.

“If I have heard the word before and I was pretty confident about the word, I would spell it. I would pick the spelling that looked right in my head,” Attard said.

Compton said she studied at length a 450-word word list provided by the Scripps National Spelling Bee.  

“I tried to get through all the words,” Compton said. It’s huge.”

Avid reading also creates good spellers, Miller and Compton said. Attard said many of the words he sees throughout daily life.

The Treasure State Spelling Bee is March 28 at Montana State University-Billings.

How will Flathead County’s top spellers spend their time preparing for their first state competition?

“I’ll probably be studying more from the list,” Compton said.

“[The] dictionary,” Miller said.

“I’ll try to study the words that don’t look familiar to me, especially the words that I don’t know how to pronounce,” Attard said.

This was Jack Eggensperger’s first year directing the bee as the new county superintendent of schools. He spoke about the importance of spelling skills.

“Spelling is still an integral part of the whole English language. I’ve always felt all different parts — grammar, punctuation, spelling are all very important. With all the technology and Twitter and the media stuff, I think it gets lost. There’s so much abbreviation. I think it’s becoming a lost art, so I really admire these kids who can still spell.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at [email protected].