{"id":14156,"date":"2023-03-04T14:16:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T19:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=14156"},"modified":"2023-03-06T10:26:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T15:26:37","slug":"hill-tops-field-to-become-lower-eastern-shore-spelling-bee-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/hill-tops-field-to-become-lower-eastern-shore-spelling-bee-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Hill tops the field to become lower Eastern Shore spelling bee champion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2023 Maryland Eastern Shore Regional Spelling Bee winner Evangelene Hill poses for a picture with the spelling bee mascot and judges Dr. Urban Wiggins, Honya VanMeter, and Dr. Kate Brown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As Evangelene Hill<\/strong> clinched the title of 2023 Maryland Eastern Shore Regional Spelling Bee winner, victory was the furthest thing from her mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eighth grader from Wicomico Day School in Salisbury, who had spelled the word \u201cjambalaya\u201d to punch her ticket to represent the lower Eastern Shore in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee later this spring, was feeling a different kind of emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was hungry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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2023 Maryland Eastern Shore Regional Spelling Bee winner Evangelene Hill (39) poses for a picture with the spelling bee mascot (left), Dr. Robert Mock, Chief of Staff & Vice President for Strategic Initiatives (right), second-place runners-up Thien Hoang (38) and Alexander Brown (1), and judges Dr. Urban Wiggins, Honya VanMeter, and Dr. Kate Brown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Hill was one of nearly 40 spellers from schools on the lower Eastern Shore who participated in the annual event and finished ahead of second-place co-runners-up Thien Hoang<\/strong>, also of Wicomico Day School, and Alexander Brown<\/strong> of Bennett Middle School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first round of spelling saw five spellers bow out before the second round significantly reduced the field by another 17 spellers. Some of the eliminating words from that second round included \u201cBilbo,\u201d \u201cMerlin,\u201d and \u201cmetrical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third round, which featured the contestants matching the correct definition with the given word, went flawlessly as each student answered with the right answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth round returned to the spelling of words, which turned the field of 17 remaining participants to 8. The cache of deciding words in round four included \u201caltercation,\u201d \u201cmemorandum,\u201d \u201cKodak,\u201d \u201cversatile,\u201d \u201crecumbent,\u201d and \u201cpeacenik.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After five rounds, five competitors were left, leading to a thrilling round six featuring words such as \u201cadolescence,\u201d \u201cconundrum,\u201d and \u201cavalanche.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting at round seven, three spellers remained on stage at the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts \u2013 Brown, Hoang, and Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Brown and Hoang, each missed their corresponding words, Hill ended the round by spelling \u201cequivocate\u201d before ultimately ending the competition by spelling the American Creole and Cajun dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hill, who participated in the competition as a fifth grader, said as the event proceeded, things began getting tense, especially with the thought of this year\u2019s event being her final opportunity to participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI definitely got more nervous as it went on,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 it ends in eighth grade, so I was thinking that this was my last chance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Evangelene Hill clinched the title of 2023 Maryland Eastern Shore Regional Spelling Bee winner, victory was the furthest thing from her mind. The eighth grader from Wicomico Day School in Salisbury, who had spelled the word \u201cjambalaya\u201d to punch her ticket to represent the lower Eastern Shore in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee…Read more Hill tops the field to become lower Eastern Shore spelling bee champion<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":14174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-14156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14156"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=14156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}