SANDPOINT — It’s not often a word at a spelling bee prompts the giggles.

But that’s exactly what happened when Dexter Simmons, a fourth grader at Washington Elementary, was asked to spell hunky-dory at Tuesday’s Lake Pend Oreille School District spelling bee.

But, as the words buzzed around the Sandpoint High School auditorium — quack,nacho, squirm, crayon, turnip, permafrost, daughter, novelist, badger, alpha, dough — one by one, a missed letter here, a letter out of place there or an extra letter added knocked out the fourth quarter until Farmin Stidwell Elementary students Ruthie Laughridge and Avery Berkey traded correctly spelled words round after found — sword, bribery, penguin, casino, bristle, developer bestow, cough, boorish and carnival.

But when Lake Pend Oreille High School Principal Geoff Penrose, who served as the event’s pronouncer, asked Avery to spell “calzone,” she gave him a quizzical look. She asked for the definition; she asked for the word to be used in a sentence but the unfamiliar word proved to be too much and she misspelled the word.

That gave the championship word to Ruthie, who correctly spelled it and gave a relieved smile at the end.

The fourth grade bee lasted for 25 rounds, with the final 12 rounds proving a marathon between Ruthie and Avery.

While the fifth grade bee wasn’t as much of a marathon as the fourth grade bee, it proved a fierce battle — and offered its own moment of levity as Northside Wyatt Lang and Ella Flynn battled for eight rounds to claim top honors.

The fifth grade bee featured words like shepherd, surmised, teak, vacancy, sheriff, depot, caravan, corgi, Goliath, Riviera, and jamboree, before it came down to Wyatt and Ella.

When Ella was challenged with turret, Wyatt was given the championship word of marsupial.

“Can you spell it?” he asked, promptly light laughter from the audience and a question from Penrose, “Do you mean, ‘What’s the definition?”

A nervous Wyatt gave a relieved affirmative nod and correctly spelled the word to the cheers of those gathered.

As the sixth graders began their bee, it became clear many were spelling bee veterans, asking for a definition or if there was an alternate meaning or for the word to be used in a sentence.

And, while they confidently words like lacrosse, trifecta, hazmat, Antarctic, turbulent, appetite, archives, anagrams and ignoble, words like

vortexes, palindrome, cannonade, abundance, and verandas tripped up several of the students, knocking them out of the bee.

As the bee entered the next rounds, the words didn’t get any easier — among them were words like sojourner, colossal, Himalayan, diaphoresis, calamitous, and kurta — a shirt originating in India as well as gannet, palladium, and more until it was down to three spellers — Jace Dick of Washington Elementary, Jack Baker of Kootenai Elementary and Coen Smith of Sagle.

The trio battled on until they came up to brevet, consortium and beguile. While they all stumbled on their respective words, because all three missed their word, they all remained in the bee. The next three words — epistolary, froufrou and marionette — also caused the trio to stumble, sending all three to the next round.

The tough words kept coming — extinguish, gauntlet, verbiage, skedaddle, buffoonery, fallacy, piratical, hurriedly and infatuation — until Jack and Coen were challenged with the final words. When Coen misspelled cuckoo, Jack correctly the championship word of “attendee” to claim his third straight spelling bee title in the 10th round.

Competing in the spelling bee in the fourth grade were: Ruthie Laughridge, Avery Berkey and Jaxon Maas of Farmin Stidwell Elementary; Kane VanStone and Sophia Walker of Hope Elementary; Beckham Stewart, Moriah Karst and Bodi Demmons of Kootenai Elementary; Mia Ratigan and Spender Cunningham of Sagle Elementary; Rowan Komberec and Audrey Martinez of Southside Elementary; and Brennan Roop and Dexter Simmons of Washington Elementary.

Competing in the spelling bee in the fifth grade were Toby Walker, Sawyer Lee, and Siena Todd-Murray of Farmin Stidwell Elementary; Liam Davis and Damian Swales of Hope Elementary; Fischer Wood, Hailey Dungan and Sully Weisgram of Kootenai Elementary; Wyatt Lang and Ella Blynn of Northside Elementary; Natalia Garcia and Teagan Newsom of Sagle Elementary; Kane Kucherry and Aiden Evans of Southside Elementary; and Sophia Taylor and Knox Williams of Washington Elementary.

Competing in the spelling bee in the sixth grade were Sophie Capodagli, Sterling McStott and Dmitri Boran of Farmin Stidwell Elementary; Foxanne Ryan-Downing and Solomon Holderman of Hope Elementary; Kate Marks, Megan Dixon and Jack Baker of Kootenai Elementary; Landon Fuller and Dallen Williams of Northside Elementary; Coen Smith and CayliJo Giard of Sagle Elementary; Chloe Envik and Jacob Roland of Southside Elementary; and Jace Dick and Jasey Treman of Washington Elementary.

Caroline Lobsinger can be reached by email at clobsinger@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.