Throughout the early morning, these 14 spellers took on words such as fuddy-duddy, bemused, dimension, clodhopper, gnarled, infuriating and perilous, just to name a few. As the rounds progressed spellers were occasionally eliminated. In round 9 five spellers remained, by round 12 there were just three (Zach Smith, Alex Turner and Hannah Murphy). In round 16, perpetrator tripped up last year's champion Alex Turner. This left just Hannah Murphy and Zach Smith. They went word-for-word for the next 7 rounds until Zach had trouble with the spelling of pertinacity. In the end, Hannah prevailed by accurately spelling nautilus and claiming the Oak Bluffs School spelling crown for 2017!
The whole Oak Bluffs School congratulates all of the spellers for their efforts in this difficult competition and looks forward to supporting Hannah at the island-wide spelling bee on March 17 at 9:30 am in the MVRHS Performing Arts Center!