Fourth grader David Carter battled through nine rounds of Pierceton Elementary School spelling bee competition Tuesday, December 16, before correctly reciting the letters for “rickety” and “pediatric” to take the school championship title.

In the gym with classmates and guests looking on, fifth grader Roman Palmer gave Carter a run for his words, as the two spelled through “cosmetics” and “frustration” and “brandished” and “anguish” before the final round.

Fourth grader Lela Stevens didn’t make the bee a breeze for either one of them. She put the guys through their paces for three rounds which included tricky nouns like “faraway,” “pirates,” and “wooden” in round 3: “breakfast,” acrobat,” and “chocolate” in round 4; “elephant,” ‘recipe” and “surprise” in round 5, before leaving the field with a misspell of the problematic “scorcher” in round 6. Carter and Palmer advanced with “fragments” and “unleash.”

A dozen spellers representing third, fourth and fifth grades started the competition as classroom champions and nine received the judges’ unhappy news regarding misplaced letters within the first two rounds.

Carter advances to the NE Indiana Regional Qualifier for the Scripps Spelling Bee, which includes an online testing platform qualifier before advancement to the Regional Bee.