Conley wins Hilltop Spelling Bee

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The final two contestants, Joe Conley (standing) and J.T. Litwin vied for the title of Spelling Bee Champion.

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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Fourth-grade students at Hilltop Elementary take their turn at the microphone during the school’s annual Spelling Bee June 7.

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Joe Conley (center) was crowned the 2009-10 Hilltop Elementary School Spelling Bee Champion. Ally Rizer (left) placed third and J.T. Litwin was the runner-up.

Fourth-grade students at Hilltop Elementary School got the opportunity to show off their spelling skills at the school’s annual Spelling Bee June 7.

As parents, teachers and the third-grade students looked on, 15 fourth-graders vied for the title of Spelling Bee Champion.

Each of the five fourth-grade classees held a spelling bee in the classroom to decide which students would compete in the grade-wide Spelling Bee. The top three students in each class advanced to the contest.

Cathy Mowry, principal of Hilltop Elementary, was the announcer, with Diane Dankovich, guidance counselor; Patti Mosure, Jeannie Bloomster and Amanda Maus, all reading intervention tutors, serving as judges.

The students competed for six rounds until it came down to the final two spellers — Joe Conley and J.T. Litwin.

For the last two spellers, the rules changed. The announcer said the word and used it in a sentence. The contestant had to spell the word correctly to move on. If the word was misspelled, the other contestant needed to spell the word correctly and then spell a new word correctly to win.

The word ‘summary’ was presented to Litwin. He misspelled the word and it was Conley’s turn to spell the word. He correctly spelled ‘summary’ and then was given a new word, ‘agriculture,’ which he also spelled correctly. He was crowned the 2009-10 Hilltop Spelling Bee Champion.

Litwin was named runner-up and Ally Rizer placed third. The three top placers received a dictionary and a Barnes and Noble gift card, courtesy of Hilltop PTO. All 15 participants were given a pencil for their participation.