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It took nine rounds of words - invisible, handle, trifle, regiment, dreadlocks, patience, spectral, seclusion, and essential - but no verbiage the judges threw at Talon Ferlan could stop him from becoming the 37th Annual Sanders County Spelling Bee champion.

The Plains Junior High School seventh grader was one of seven boys and 14 girls to participate in the spelling bee at the county courthouse on Friday afternoon. For just over 45 minutes, pronouncer Tom Eggensperger of Thompson Falls provided the kids the words while judges Joanne Burk, Kate Baxter and Karen Dwyer gave the contestants the good or bad news. Dwyer was named the "spelling bee legend" because she has volunteered as a judge for some 20 years. It was Burk's 10th year and Baxter's second. This is the second year as pronouncer for Eggensperger, a former owner of The Sanders County Ledger.

This was the 37th year of the Sanders County Spelling Bee, and the Sanders County Ledger and First Security Bank are the longest continuous private sponsorship of the spelling bee in Montana, said Annie Wooden, the Ledger publisher and spelling bee director. Thirty-two spectators attended the competition, held in the courtroom at the Sanders County courthouse. Dixon Elementary School had four students at the event from fourth to eighth grade. Hot Springs had four students from fourth to seventh grade, Plains had four from fifth to seventh grade, Thompson Falls had four sixth and seventh grade students, Trout Creek had three students from fifth to eighth grade, and Noxon had two eighth graders present.

The 12-year-old Ferlan said he was a little nervous during the practice round, but was fine after that. He revealed his self confidence with each round by promptly giving the correct spelling and immediately walking away from the microphone even before the judges showed their green cards.

"There were a couple that I was iffy on, but I wasn't worried," said the seventh grader. Although a list of words was provided for the contestants to study, Ferlan said he didn't know about it and didn't study at all. As an avid reader, he said that he knew most of the words through the books he has read. Along with the trophy, he received a gift card from Barnes & Noble.

Second place in the competition went to Jeff Irgens, an eighth grader from Noxon School who competed last year. Third place went to Hot Springs seventh-grader Elizabeth Knudsen, who was the overall champion in 2023.

The competition began with a practice round where 12 of the 21 contestants misspelled their practice words. Nine left the competition in the first real round, but none were disqualified in rounds two or three. Some of the kids asked for more information, such as the definition or having it used in a sentence. Most asked Eggensperger to repeat the word. And most of them answered fairly quickly, although one girl took quite a while with her first time up. Some looked up or off in the distance, some mouthed the spelling before verbalizing it, and a couple wrote the word out on their arm with their finger.

Ed Moreth

Talon Ferlan of Plains correctly spells the word "essential" in the final round of the Sanders County Spelling Bee.

However, starting in round four more of the contestants began falling out one by one until only four remained - Ferlan, Irgens, Knudsen and Nathan Baxter, a seventh grader from Thompson Falls, who missed the word "anniversary."

Ferlan is qualified to compete at the state level competition at Montana State University in Bozeman on March 9. Irgens will be the alternate.

The spellers also included: Sonny Matt, who competed in 2023, Madison Vanderburg, Aly Bigcrane, and Sid Boyd, all of Dixon; Ryo Aruda, Grace Hindman and Syndi Sepp of Hot Springs; Palmer Revier, Reese Meredith and Paisley Farthing of Plains; Kaleb Susic, Easton Helvey and Gabby Taylor of Thompson Falls, Geneva Schmidt, Sonja Swatman and Liylah Williams of Trout Creek; and Avalynn Grimm of Noxon, who competed last year.