A 13-year-old from Cape Hatteras is heading to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

Elizabeth Muller, a seventh-grader from Cape Hatteras Secondary School took first place in the 25th-annual Downeast Regional Spelling Bee held at the Turnage Theatre in Washington on Saturday.

Muller, who has never been to D.C. before, said she is excited to attend Bee Week, a series of events tied to the national bee, from May 28 through June 2. Muller returned to the bee after placing second two years ago, as a fifth-grader.

“I wanted to at least get third place,” she said of her return to the bee.

Second place went to Sasha Surkin, of The Oakwood School in Greenville, and the third-place winner was Mary Grace Flowers from Christ Covenant School in Winterville.

The Downeast Regional Spelling Bee is an annual tradition sponsored by a longstanding partnership between the Washington Daily News and PotashCorp-Aurora.

Muller won the final round of 11 rounds by correctly spelling batik. She will attend Bee Week courtesy of PotashCorp-Aurora.

Thirty children of the 42 schools registered participated in Saturday’s bee. Beaufort County students included Camden Drew from Chocowinity Middle School, Rachel Fox from Chocowinity Primary School, Carlos Garcia Hernandez from John Small Elementary School, Ana Roberson from P.S. Jones Middle School and Brianna Wiggins from Unity Christian Academy. The 25 other spellers represented schools from Cape Hatteras to Kinston.

Competition was fierce, but friendly, as spellers tackled such words as wiseacre, autobahn, azimuth and kohlrabi.

The second round saw the most spellers go down, as the words got a little more challenging — diorama, homonym, dungaree and muumuu were some that got the best of spellers.

Judges were Mike Voss, retired reporter who continues to contract for the Washington Daily News, and Cornell McGill, retired, North Carolina Department of Public Safety. Vail Stewart Rumley, news editor of the Washington Daily News, served as organizer and the pronouncer of words spelled.

In addition to the first-place prize of the trip to D.C., Muller won: a 2017 United States Mint Proof Set given by Jay Sugarman, chairman and CEO of iStar Financial, in honor of his father, Samuel Louis Sugarman; a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium, the online version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; a one-year subscription to the Merriam Webster Unabridged online dictionary from Scripps; and a $30 Walmart gift card from the Washington Daily News. Surkin took the second-place prize of a Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, and both second- and third-place winners were awarded a $30 Walmart gift card and a $25 Amazon gift card from Scripps.

 

2017 Spellers, Downeast Regional Spelling Bee
Each speller won first place in their school’s bee to qualify for the regional bee.

David Hurst, Arapahoe Charter School

Ahmani Garris, Ayden Elementary School

Josh Kanuck, Beaufort Middle School

Elizabeth Muller, Cape Hatteras Secondary School

Camden Drew, Chocowinity Middle School

Rachel Fox, Chocowinity Primary School

Mary Grace Flowers, Christ Covenant School

Daniel Jones, Creekside Elementary School

Zicravion Harris, East End Elementary School

Rhianna Price, Edna Andrews Elementary School

Carter Jeffreys, First Flight Elementary School

Logan Hanf, First Flight Middle School

Amare Jarvis, Fred A. Anderson Elementary School

Logan Windley, Jamesville Elementary School

Carlos Garcia Hernandez, John Small Elementary School

Mason Williams, Kitty Hawk Elementary School

Morgan Whitehurst, Lakeforest Elementary School

Adrianna Geramita, Lawrence Academy

Chris Heath, Manteo Elementary School

Emma Daniels, Manteo Middle School

Noah Stewart, Mattamuskeet Elementary School

Joshua Reynolds, Mattamuskeet Middle School

Samantha Webb, Morehead City Middle School

Brian O’Neil, Nags Head Elementary School

Vinh Le, Newport Middle School

Grant Haze, Northwest Elementary School

Ana Roberson, P.S. Jones Middle School

Noah Johnson, Pamlico County Middle School

Trayoni Grimes, SW Snowden Elementary School

Cassidy Patrick, South Creek Middle School

Sasha Surkin, The Oakwood School

Brianna Wiggins, Unity Christian Academy

Damien Oblander, West Craven Middle School

Alexus Whitney, Winterville Charter Academy