PORT ANGELES — Violet Beltran of Queen of Angels School correctly spelled the word “factory” and won the citywide spelling bee for fourth-grade students.
Twenty-two finalists from public and private Port Angeles elementary schools — including Franklin, Jefferson, Dry Creek, Hamilton, Roosevelt, Queen of Angels and Olympic Christian schools — participated in the spelling bee Tuesday at the Port Angeles City Hall council chambers.
All were finalists from their elementary schools.
Rweha Munyagi from Dry Creek Elementary won second place, and Kimberly Cano from Hamilton Elementary won third place.
Each of the three top spellers received a Soroptimist-Jet Set “bee” trophy and a gift bag from the North Olympic Library System, which oversees public libraries in Clallam County.
All participants received “bee” pencils and certificates of commendation.
Also competing, along with the first-place winner, from the private Queen of Angels school, were Faith Chamberlain and Sydney Realph-Wu.
Competing from the Port Angeles School District’s elementary school of Dry Creek, along with the second-place winner, were Ryan Adamire and Easton Joslin.
Spelling finalists from Hamilton Elementary of the Port Angeles School District, along with the third-place winner, were Rylie Ashley-Morgan and Lauren Waldron.
Other schools and their finalists, were:
• Franklin: Lum Fu, Gabriel Secondez, Lauren Rankin.
• Jefferson: Elisabeth Jewell, Owen Nevaril, Tru Wiggins.
• Olympic Christian: Sadie Decker, Lily Robertson, Zoe Washburn.
• Roosevelt: Stephanie Grimes, Devin Hibler, Robert Mast, Sierra Robinson.
The annual bee for fourth-graders is sponsored by Soroptimist International of Port Angeles-Jet Set.
Soroptimist judges were Jean Fairchild, Billie Grauberger, Marian Mertz and Jill Oakes.
Marsha Robin was the “pronouncer” of words.