Underwood Finds ‘Camelot’ By Winning Bee

Left to Right: 1st Place Lauren Underwood-Eastside, 2nd Place Baylee Nemeth-Woodland, 3rd Place, Austin Brock-Eastside, 4th Place Kyle Margarito-Westside, 5th Place Maggie Cook-Woodland.

187 words and 29 rounds comprised one of the longest most competitive Cannon County spelling bees in recent history and the marathon contest was won by spelling the word “camelot.”

Eastside's Lauren Underwood spelled the word correctly and will now be headed to Nashville in March to participate in the Statewide Spelling Bee contest at Belmont University. 

23 Cannon County 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders participated in this year’s event at Westside School Thursday night in which it took 16 rounds to get down to the final two contestants.

Baylee Nemeth from Woodland School almost had it won in the 23rd round when Lauren misspelled “disappearance.” Baylee spelled “intrigue” right but miscued on the word “impenetrable” giving Lauren new life.

Six rounds later Baylee missed the word “syringe.” After Lauren spelled “insulation” correctly, she then spelled “Camelot” for the win.

Nemeth captured second place, Austin Brock of Eastside finished third, while Kyle Margarito of Westside claimed fourth, and Woodland's Maggie Cook finished fifth.

Student Spelling Bee Participants (*Finished in top of school spelling bees but did not participate in County Spelling Bee)

Auburn

Hunter Vickers

Chloe Dill

Bradly Vickers

Rachel Dorris*

Rachel Hale-Alternate

Eastside

Brittany Klen*

Lindsey Bowman

Lauren Underwood

James Jones

Austin Brock

Jacob Gonzalez-Alternate*

Short Mountain

Caitlyn Miller

Addison Hale

Rachel Alexander*

Katie Reedy*

Erika Taylor

West Side

Kyle Margarito

Michael Buse

Amy Mears

Justin Hill

Joram Hardin

Taylor Cochran-Alternate*

Woodbury Grammar

Abigail Ferrell

Dathan Ring

Jacob Bentley

Josh Walkup*

Micah Fonoti* 

Baylee Nemeth

Maggie Cook

Austin Taylor

Cierra Thomas

Katie Gannon*

Judges

Kasi Agee

Chassity Burks

Gloria Simon