How do you spell winner?
J-e-n-n-i M-a-t-t-h-e-w-s.
The Union Middle School eighth-grader Friday was crowned the state-championship speller in the Deseret News Spelling Bee. "Galahad" and "ostium" were her final words after 10 rounds of competition.
"It's exciting," an all-smiles Matthews said after the win. Union Middle is in the Jordan School District.
But the excitement is only beginning.
Matthews and her mother will receive a free trip to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee beginning May 27 in Washington, D.C. She also received a $100 savings bond and other prizes.
Runner-up Jaclyn Cowley of Murray proved to be a tough challenger, correctly spelling "hemeralopia" and other arcane words presented in the final rounds of the bee. Some words at the competition were so foreign and difficult to pronounce that they were skipped.
"I didn't think I'd get that far. The words were hard," said Cowley, a sixth-grader at Viewmont Elementary. She received $100 cash, educational software and other prizes.
Cowley and her mother, Sherryl, like perhaps all 46 contestants from Utah's public, private, parochial and home schools, practiced spelling lists of words for hours each night to prepare for the competition.
Matthews even set aside work for her Saturday violin competition to study for the bee. She planned to rosin her bow for Beethoven's Concerto No. 1 after the bee. But she was happy to bask in the glow of victory while it lasted.
Her father, Morris Matthews, called her an example to other children who have faced life's setbacks. Jenni Matthews is diabetic and excels in basketball, tennis and softball in spite of the childhood disease.
"We think she's an example for diabetic kids," her father said. "The disease doesn't have to slow you down."
Finalists at Friday's bee were whittled down from thousands of Utah students participating in school and district spelling contests. The youngest was 8-year-old Benjamin Lobrot, a third-grader at JR Smith Elementary in Wasatch School District; the oldest contestants were 14-year-olds from Carbon, Daggett and Duchesne school districts.
Cash prizes ranging from $25 to $100 went to third- through sixth-place winners. Other gifts included educational software and gift certificates for national spelling bee merchandise.
Those runners-up are:
Third place: Jason Johnson, seventh grade, Morgan Middle School
Fourth place: Stephanie Faust, eighth grade, Duchesne Junior High School
Fifth place: Jamie Prevedel, eighth-grade, West Junior High School, Uintah School District
Sixth place: Sarah Roberts, sixth grade, South Sevier Middle School
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com