{"id":14919,"date":"2024-03-06T11:34:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T16:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=14919"},"modified":"2024-04-01T14:24:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T18:24:53","slug":"keightley-reinhardt-is-the-2024-lower-eastern-shore-spelling-bee-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/keightley-reinhardt-is-the-2024-lower-eastern-shore-spelling-bee-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Keightley-Reinhardt is the 2024 Lower Eastern Shore Spelling Bee Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"413\" src=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/03\/Spelling-Bee.jpg?ver=1709742740\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/03\/Spelling-Bee.jpg 400w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/03\/Spelling-Bee-291x300.jpg 291w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Conor Keightley-Reinhardt, his mother Lindsey (left), the Bee mascot, and his English teacher and spelling coach Traci Young. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The final round of the 2024 Lower Eastern Shore Spelling Bee lasted longer than you might think.\u00a0 Like a tense tennis match, words bounced back and forth between Conor Keightley-Reinhardt and Stephen Decatur Middle School\u2019s 7th grader Ilya Karcheuski.\u00a0 Before spelling each word, the contestants stated their names.\u00a0 \u00a0Keightley-Reinhardt strode to the microphone each time and dryly said, \u201cI\u2019m Conor\u201d, at one point eliciting giggles from the audience because he had repeated it so frequently.<br>\u00a0<br>But he was done repeating when the 8th grader correctly spelled \u201cphlebotomy\u201d to clinch the Regional Championship and qualify to represent the Lower Eastern Shored in the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee later this spring.<br>\u00a0<br>Keightley-Reinhardt was one of 55 participants in this year\u2019s Bee held at the Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center (PAC) on the campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.\u00a0 Despite the miserable conditions outside with rain and gusty winds, the PAC was filled with anxious parents, friends, and teachers hanging on every word and cheering the contestants on, regardless of whether they answered correctly or incorrectly.<br>\u00a0<br>Participants didn\u2019t just have to spell correctly.\u00a0 In the third round, they had to determine which of the two definitions they were given accurately defined the word.\u00a0 It\u2019s an option that Scripps has included in the Bee competition to ensure that contestants to not only memorize correct spelling but to understand the meaning of the often-complex words they were given.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>This year\u2019s judges were:<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dr. Urban Wiggins\u2014Vice Provost for Decision Science and Visualization at UMES<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Diamond Nwaeze, 4-H STEM Youth Development Educator at UMES-Extension<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dr. Amy Hagenrater-Gooding, Professor of English and Modern Languages at UMES<br>\u00a0<br>Dr. Kate Brown, Associate Professor in the Department of Business, Management and Accounting at UMES was the Bee\u2019s announcer.\u00a0 Dr. Kadeem Turnbull, Director of Alumni Relations and Special Events at UMES served as the Emcee.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>In addition to representing the Lower Eastern Shore at the national spelling bee, Keightley-Reinhardt will receive:<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A one-year membership to Britannica Online Premium<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A one-year subscription to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online Dictionary<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, 2024 U.S. Mint Proof Set<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A one-year subscription to Epic Family<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eight Love, 1-on-1 online coding classes and a one-year home subscription to Tynker<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A custom-made Champion\u2019s medallion<br>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An all-expenses-paid trip to the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee and a six-night stay at the Gaylord National Resort<br>\u00a0<br>The Scripps National Spelling Bee takes place with the Preliminaries on May 28th and concludes with the Finals on May 30th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The final round of the 2024 Lower Eastern Shore Spelling Bee lasted longer than you might think.\u00a0 Like a tense tennis match, words bounced back and forth between Conor Keightley-Reinhardt and Stephen Decatur Middle School\u2019s 7th grader Ilya Karcheuski.\u00a0 Before spelling each word, the contestants stated their names.\u00a0 \u00a0Keightley-Reinhardt strode to the microphone each time&#8230;<span class=\"cpschool-read-more-link-holder\"><a class=\"btn btn-basic cpschool-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/keightley-reinhardt-is-the-2024-lower-eastern-shore-spelling-bee-champion\/\">Read more <span class=\"sr-only\">Keightley-Reinhardt is the 2024 Lower Eastern Shore Spelling Bee Champion<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2167,"featured_media":14927,"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":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-14919","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\/14919","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\/2167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14919"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=14919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}