Eldorado Elementary prepares for Saline County Spelling Bee
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Kids around the county are studying their spelling books to be prepared for the annual Saline County Spelling Bee sponsored by the Regional Office of Education.
Eight third-graders, eight fourth-graders and eight fifth-graders competed at the Eldorado Elementary School cafeteria Wednesday before a small crowd of parents. From those seven will be competing against Eldorado Middle School pupils in the Eldorado District Spelling Bee. Two winners from that bee will compete against two spellers from each of the four school districts 6:30 p.m. Jan. 31 at Harrisburg Middle School's Media Center.
The winner there advances to the Tri-State Spelling Bee in Evansville, Ind.
The judges Wednesday agreed several words were a challenge for the youngsters.
Jordan Fricks became the winner by properly spelling "solicit."
"I've been doing a lot of studying. My mom and I went through a lot of words," Fricks said.
Fricks has more studying ahead of him and appeared eager to resume hitting the books to be ready for the Middle School bee.
"I'll probably be studying a lot of words and looking in the dictionary for the middle school words."
The seven who will compete against each other and with the Eldorado Middle School pupils are Fricks, Lauryn Hampton, Paige Munds, Hollie Juarez, Takiya Britton, Zakiya Britton and Hunter Ray.
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DeNeal receives e-mail at mailto:bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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