Pooja Dayaratna, an eighth-grade student at Farmington Middle School, won the title of Three Rivers College Spelling Bee Champion at the Southeast Missouri Regional Spelling Bee on Saturday, March 29.
Pooja emerged victorious over 28 other spellers from 17 area schools representing five different counties.
With five spellers left in the third championship round, Pooja was the only contestant to spell her word correctly, which was “palisades.” She then correctly spelled her championship word, “thrall,” which means “a state of complete absorption or servitude.”
As a result of her victory, Pooja will represent Three Rivers College and Southeast Missouri in the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
After being forced to cancel the 2020 national competition due to the COVID pandemic, Scripps is foregoing the traditional gathering in Washington, D.C. this year in favor of a virtual competition for the preliminary and semifinal rounds.
Once a slate of 10-12 finalists emerges from the virtual rounds, those contestants will gather at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, on July 8 for the national finals, which will be televised on ESPN.
After Pooja won the competition, four spellers remained to see who would claim trophies for second and third place.
It took four more rounds of spelling for Colby Armes, a fourth grader from St. Joseph Catholic School in Farmington, to win second place. Coming in third was Rose Johnson, a seventh-grade student at Poplar Bluff Junior High.
Colby’s older brother Brayden, a three-time Three Rivers College bee champion, was also on hand to present the trophies to this year’s top three finishers.
Like the national competition, the 2020 regional bee finals were canceled last year to due the college’s decision to prohibit all public events in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.
Three Rivers College’s spelling bee coordinator, Mark Sanders, an associate professor of Philosophy and English, said he was “thrilled to be back in business after a year away.”
“All these students work so hard to get to this level,” Sanders said. “Our event is a way to recognize and celebrate their academic achievements throughout our region.”
Ten spellers qualified for the championship rounds, with the results as follows:
Eighth Place (tied)Jakob Callis, eighth grade, Holcomb High School;Clare Maloney, sixth grade, St. Joseph Catholic School (Farmington);Cammie Pritchard, sixth grade, South Pemiscot Elementary School (Steele)
Sixth Place (tied),Trey Heeb, eighth grade, Kennett Middle School;Claire Funke, seventh grade, Poplar Bluff Junior High
Fourth Place (tied)Brylee Jackson, eighth grade, Cooter High School;Mollie Moore, seventh grade, South Pemiscot Elementary School (Steele).
Three Rivers College has been an official sponsor for the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2010. Any public, private, parochial school or homeschool within their designated service region can register to be part of the competition.
Several local businesses and organization also sponsored this year’s bee, including: Armco Rentals, Gamblin Lumber, Jeff Jungbluth/Farmer’s Insurance, Insta Print, Southern Bank, Poplar Bluff Rotary Club, Kennedy, Kennedy, Robbins & Yarbro LC, Blaich Family Dentistry and East Side Discount Pharmacy.