Gates wins spelling bee, moves on to next round

The McDuffie County School System Spelling Bee for the 2011-12 school year was held Thursday, Jan. 26, at Thomson-McDuffie Middle School. The 17 students in the bee represented the 1,654 students enrolled in grades four through eight at Dearing Elementary, Norris Elementary and Thomson-McDuffie Middle School.

The winner of the spelling bee will represent the school system at the local qualifying bee for the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee on March 3.

The local qualifying bee is sponsored by The Augusta Chronicle.

Tyler Gates, an eighth-grade student at Thomson-McDuffie Middle School, won by correctly spelling the word “xylophone.”

Other spellers were Victoria Wells, Lauren Huff, Olivia Murray, Martha Kate Jenkins, Dearra Smith, Man Shah, Kevin Jones, Danielle Taylor, Devin Pinkston, Tayler Castleberry, Kendrick Parker, Qurtavious Gray, Lucia Peña, Amber Spivey and Trace Henry.