In back-to-back years, Great Bend Middle School has claimed the Barton County Spelling Bee Championship. Jacklyn Garcia, an eighth-grader at GBMS, won the school Spelling Bee this year with the word “pedestrian” and went on to claim the title of Champion in the County Spelling Bee.

She was also last years’ middle school runner-up and won the 2019 bee as a sixth-grader at Riley Elementary School. Last year’s champion was Sydney Mattison, who was a GBMS eighth-grader at the time. 

With the contest held virtually this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, Miss Garcia had an incredible performance correctly spelling 45 of the 50 words given to the participants. The words included expugnable, guarnerius, affenpinscher and cladistics. Vocabulary was also included in the contest and she scored a perfect score on that section of the contest.

The second-place finisher, Briella Torres, answered 37 of the 50 questions correctly.

Garcia received a certificate and first-place ribbon for winning the middle school spelling bee as well as a trophy and Great Bend Chamber certificate for winning the county spelling bee. Garcia will represent Barton County at the end of the month in the State Spelling Bee competition.

Miss Torres, a seventh-grader at GBMS, was crowned as the runner-up for the school spelling bee as she correctly spelled “sinister.” Torres received a certificate and ribbon for her second-place finish.  

GBMS Spelling Bee Coordinator Brittany Leathers commented, “I’m extremely proud of both of these girls as they worked exceptionally hard to prepare for the spelling bee and performed outstanding in the school spelling bee! I am excited and proud of Jacklyn fo