Student Wins Spelling Bee Two Years in a Row

A Mill Creek Middle School student has been crowned the winner of the 2014 Cherokee County Association of Educator's annual spelling bee competition for the second time in as many years.

Sathvika Narasimhan correctly spelled “boodle” and then “stethoscope” last night to win the competition, the Cherokee County School District said in a news release.

Sathvika, a sixth-grader at Mill Creek, won the county contest last year as a fifth-grader representing Little River Elementary School. 

Thirty-one Cherokee County students put their spelling skills to the test in the Cherokee County Association of Educators’ annual competition on Thursday. 

Creekland Middle School seventh-grader Joshua Karcher won second place and Woodstock Elementary School fourth-grader Isabella D’Cunha came in third. 

Each elementary and middle school sent its school-level winner to the Cherokee County Spelling Bee in hopes of taking home the title and a chance to advance to the district competition.  

Students in grades 4-8 are eligible for the competition. The group went through eight rounds of words before a champion was declared in the event, which was held at Cherokee High School.  

The first-, second- and third-place winners will compete at the District Spelling Bee on March 1 in Cobb County.  

The student spellers ran through more than 80 words during the competition, including tricky terms like “scintillation,” “epizootic,”  “bourgeois,” “accoutrement” and “dodecahedron.” 

The annual event is sponsored by Cherokee County Association of Educators and the Georgia Association of Educators.  

Lillian Burnaman welcomed the audience and spellers; Ana Pettit served as caller of the words; Kathryn Smithyman, Peta Murray and School Board Chair Janet Read were judges for the event; and spotters were Phyllis Ailes and School Board member Patsy Jordan. 

2014 Spelling Bee school winners include: A.J. Drotlef, Arnold Mill Elementary; Cal Pace, Avery Elementary; Elisha Cloy, Ball Ground Elementary; Ryan Berwald, Bascomb Elementary; Joey Hilburg, Boston Elementary; Lance Creel-Charles, Canton Elementary; Shelby Rhoades, Carmel Elementary; Basia Coleman, Clark Creek Elementary; Campbell Cato, Clayton Elementary; Joshua Karcher, Creekland Middle; Robbie Lammens, Dean Rusk Middle; Caitlin Leamon, ET Booth Middle; Carson Allen, Free Home Elementary; Braden Webb, Freedom Middle; James Edwards, Hasty Elementary; Ginna Farina, Hickory Flat Elementary; Izabella Mingolla, Holly Springs ES; Kaetlyn Hight, Indian Knoll Elementary; Ruthie Prayitno, Johnston ES; Miles Hagadone, Knox Elementary; Dylan Quarcoo, Liberty Elementary; Faith Olomola, Little River Elementary; Julia Barfield, Macedonia Elementary; Sathvika Narasimhan, Mill Creek Middle; Alphonso Bradham, Mountain Road Elementary; Dakota Romero-Walton, Oak Grove Elementary; Sean Brubaker, RM Moore Elementary; Adam Brams, Sixes Elementary; Chaolin Hancock, Teasley Middle; Isabella D’Cunha, Woodstock Elementary; and Alex Hegman, Woodstock Middle.