Sixteen top spellers from the 1st to 8th grades competed in the annual ACS Spelling Bee on January 27 and 7th grader Gabriella Goodwin clinched first place. Gabriella will move on to represent ACS at the South Jersey Regional Spelling Bee this spring, which due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be held online.
This was Gabriella’s first spelling bee win, after competing two prior years when she was in the 4th and 5th grades. 3rd grader Madelyn Petrinec placed second and 6th grader Thomas Potenski placed third. The top spellers had advanced to the school-wide Bee by winning classroom spelling bees in December.
During the Bee, which was held on the stage in the gym, proud parents watched and cheered from the audience and fellow students watched via a livestream video into their classrooms. The Bee went 48 rounds, with Gabriella and Madelyn going head to head for the last 8 rounds before Madelyn misspelled “fawn” and Gabriella clinched the victory by correctly spelling the 232nd word in the bee — “gooey.”
“I’m so excited for Gabriella winning first place,” said Mrs. Jessica Martin, the ACS Spelling Club Advisor who oversaw the Bee. “She has consistently been one of the school’s top spellers for several years, and I’m confident she will represent ACS well at the regional bee.”
The 16 classroom finalists, by grade, were: Oritseyemi Pessu and Ariel Wilkins (1st); Charlotte Newman and Caitlin Doucett (2nd); Gabrielle DiSciascio and Madelyn Petrinec (3rd); Mia Gaffney and Gaebriel Hahn-Chaney (4th); Caelyn Domsic and Antonino Miranda (5th); Ethan Costello and Thomas Potenski (6th); Gabriella Goodwin and Layla Kent (7th); and Joshua Kinch and Alek Stein (8th).
