At the Sanders County Spelling Bee in Thompson Falls on Friday, the battle wasn't for first place. Instead, it came down to a three-way tie for third in the annual competition.

Sara Czerwinski

W-I-N-N-E-R-S – Kaitlyn Ducept of Plains (second from left) took first in the annual Sanders County Spelling Bee, followed by Hattie Neesvig from Thompson Falls (second from right) in second place and Piper Bergstrom of Plains (center) in third. The winners are shown with Ledger Publisher Annie Wooden and Dan Whittenburg, the bee pronouncer.

Fourteen students competed for the county title, held at the Sanders County Courthouse. Kaitlyn Ducept, a fifth-grader from Plains, won by spelling the words "retrospective and "tundra" correct in the final round. Ducept said she practiced by having her mom read words to her. She also said she loves to read. Ducept, the daughter of Darren and Cassandra Ducept, will represent Sanders County when she competes with spellers from across Montana at the Treasure State Spelling Bee in Billings on March 17.

Second place in the Sanders County Spelling Bee went to Hattie Neesvig, a sixth-grader from Thompson Falls. For third place, Piper Bergstrom came out successful after a three-way tie. After Ducept was declared the winner in the sixth round of speller, Bergstrom, a seventh-grader from Plains, came back with Tayten Keller (seventh grade, Hot Springs) and Jayna Hale (fifth grade, Dixon) for a spell-off. Bergstrom was the final speller standing in the third-place challenge.

Other students competing in the spelling bee included from Plains, Dawson Brown (eighth grade), Romeo McCarren (sixth); from Thompson Falls, Sabrina McGaughey (fourth); from Hot Springs, Josie Uski (seventh), Madalyn Homola (fifth) and Jeremiah Rexus (seventh); and from Dixon, Jayden Whitehawk (sixth), Adele Ranney (fourth) and Katie Porter (fourth).

The bee is sponsored by the Sanders County Ledger and First Security Bank. The top three spellers were awarded trophies from the Ledger and Barnes & Noble gift cards from First Security Bank.