02/05/2010: "Million-To-One Chance At Spelling Bee"

( Front L to R: Dalton Ayers; Joe Fyrqvist. Back row: Carolyn Haugen & Rotarian Mike Close -photos by Mike Griffin)

At the 2010 Rotary Spelling Bee on Tuesday an event occurred that had literally about a one in a million chance of happening!

Spelling Bee rules call for the winner to “win by two,” but a bit of strange statistical math occurred during the final stretch of the competition that has probably never before seen in the county, and would be considered a very rare occurrence anywhere, ever.

Specifically, after all the many rounds, there were four final competitors. These were the individuals who scored 99% or more on all their spelling. In other words, they misspell less than 1 word in 100.

Then the unexpected occurred. In sequence, competitor #1 stepped up and spelled his word perfectly. Then, #2 misspelled his word followed by #3 followed immediately by #4.

The judges had never seen the like. An ad hoc rules conference was necessary. How to win by two? Spell the last word, of course. But, the three last words were sequentially missed, and had been spelled out loud, as normal for sub-rounds. There was a tie for 2nd place, and no rule to handle it.

Unheard of! The three spellers went into a play-off to earn a place in the final round. After several more sub-rounds, the challenger earned his spot. Eventually the final winner was Dalton Ayers, son of proud parents Travis and Jennifer.

1st Place Winner: Dalton Ayers, 7th Grade Friday Harbor Middle School, $75
1st Place Winner’s Classroom: $150
1st Place Winner’s School: $300

Finalist: Joe Fyrqvist, 8th Grade Friday Harbor Middle School, $50
Finalist’s Classroom: $100
Finalist’s School: $200

4th Grade Top Finisher, Lauren Ayers, Friday Harbor Elementary school, $25
5th Grade Top Finisher, Jillian Urbach, Paideia Classical School, $25
6th Grade Top Finisher, Will Christison, Friday Harbor Elementary School, $25

Congratulations to all the 22 competitors:
ig_Spell_Bee-3_10_002 (75k image)

(Walt Wegener and Mike Griffin were contributors to the writing of this report)