It took four rounds to narrow the field in the 2025 Barton County Spelling Bee from 22 to four, and then for a champion to emerge. This year’s winner was Rose Thomas, a sixth-grader at Eisenhower Elementary School in Great Bend. Her winning word was “tangerine.”
The remaining three finalists battled for a couple more rounds until Xander Montes, a seventh-grader at Hoisington Middle School, was named runner-up when he correctly spelled “consternation.”
Each year, the Great Bend Kiwanis Club sponsors the Donald H. Humphreys Barton County Spelling Bee, where the top two spellers from 12 public and private schools compete. There were a couple of no-shows on Saturday as they took the stage of the Great Bend High School Auditorium.
Jay Luerman, the spelling bee coordinator, said the Kiwanis Club has hosted the bee since 1981 and named it after local attorney Humphreys, a longtime supporter of the bee, after he died in 2008. Luerman commented that every contestant Saturday had to place first or second at their school spelling bee to appear on the stage Saturday. “This is quite an accomplishment, to be a winner or a runner-up at your school.”
Before the bee got underway, each student took a turn at the microphone. They were asked to give their name, school, and what they think their future careers will be. There were fashion designers, teachers, veterinarians and authors, scientists, a farmer, an aerospace engineer and a baby-sitter, with only one student saying “I don’t know what I want to do.” Thomas said she wants to be a surgeon and Montes wants to be an engineer.
Julie Carroll, an attorney at Bauer, Pike, Bauer, Wary, Carroll & Gunn LLC, was the pronouncer for the bee. Spellers were greeted at the door by Perry Smith, Arlen Schroeder and Dan Soeken. The judges were Kiwanians Luerman, Barb Esfeld and club president Suresh Maharjan. There was one practice round.
Carroll pronounced each word twice, letting spellers know if a word was a homonym or could be confused with another word. The spellers could ask her to give the definition of a word or to use it in a sentence, a strategy the winners used frequently.
“It helps me think about the word,” Thomas explained.
Thomas can advance to the Sunflower State Spelling Bee, scheduled for March 22 at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina. If she is unable to attend, Montes can represent Barton County.
