4/7/08-9

10-year-old is spelling bee champ Print E-mail
Rette Speight - DAILY HERALD

Forty-four nervous little faces looked past the bright lights and off the stage to find their parents, friends and families sitting below.
Students from third grade up to eighth grade representing Utah, Juab, Sanpete and Wasatch counties competed in the Utah Valley Spelling Bee early Saturday morning at the SCERA Theatre in Orem. The spellers had won their classroom spelling bees and then won their school spell-off, and were hoping to claim the county title.

Ten-year-old Isaac Skarstedt, standing on a box to reach the microphone, won the spelling bee with the word "terrapin" in round 15. The fifth grader from Lakeview Academy in Saratoga Springs said he's been practicing the words for 25 days, by reading them through and with lots of help from his mom.

Skarstedt will be going to Washington, D.C., to compete in the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held in May. The championship prize from there would be $20,000 cash.

From the county bee, Skarstedt won a trophy, a $100 savings bond, a dictionary and a one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Second place winner McKay Johnson of Ranches Academy in Eagle Mountain and third place winner Brianna Nelson of Liberty Academy in Salem took home trophies as well as a $20 certificate to Amazon.com and subscription.

Sunshine Laier, spelling bee coordinator and circulation sales manager at the Daily Herald, said schools have been preparing for the spelling bee since October.

Chase Kimball, age 10 from Art City Elementary in Springville, said that preparing for the competition consisted of lots of reading. Kimball was eliminated in the first round, but was still excited for his progress.

Chase won his school spelling bee, which had students from third grade through sixth grade. Chase is in the fourth grade.

"I didn't think I'd win the school spelling bee, but winning against the older kids was pretty cool," Chase said.

His mom, Hillary Kimball, said she didn't even go to the all-school bee.

"He kept forgetting to take the list home, he hadn't studied it till this last week," she said. "I just told him 'good luck' and 'have fun' when he left the house."
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