Pupil from Bangor takes State Spelling Bee crown

BANGOR – Sixth-grader Thomas Guthrie wasn’t “lackadaisical” when it came to spelling, and, to prove it, he spelled that word correctly and won the State Spelling Bee on Saturday.

Guthrie, 12, who attends James F. Doughty School, outspelled 15 other middle school pupils, some of them one or two grade levels ahead of him, to win the top honors. He will go on to represent the state at the national competition in Washington, D.C., in May.

Guthrie was beaming after the bee, but he said there were times when he was a bit nervous, especially as the number of competitors dwindled but the competition heated up.

“It was relatively easy until we got to the end when the words got harder,” he said after the 50-minute-long competition concluded at Eastern Maine Community College’s Rangeley Hall.

Guthrie was prepared. He studied words used in previous national competitions, and he is a voracious reader. He said he reads as much as four hours a day.

It’s an interest that started when he was a tot. One of the first phrases he learned to obey was “turn the page,” said his mother, Ulrike Guthrie.

For an added benefit, Guthrie was wearing his lucky cargo pants and sweat shirt, a uniform he said he has worn through nearly all of the competitions that led up to this one.

His grandmother Carolyn Guthrie, who flew in from Kentucky last week for the bee, said she thinks that much of her grandson’s success Saturday was because of his hard work and determination, although she supplied him with a good luck charm of her own. She handed him a penny she found outside the hall. It was well worn, but she remembered the adage that good luck comes to those who find a penny on the ground.

In the competition sponsored by the Bangor Daily News, the pupils had to spell a word correctly to advance to the next round. While at the microphone, the spellers could ask pronouncer Tim Allen, assistant BDN copy desk chief, to repeat the word, to define it, to explain its origin or to use it in a sentence.

Once the contestants start spelling they have to continue; they can’t start over, according to the rules.

A panel of judges watched carefully and listened to the spellers. They included Barbara McDade, director of the Bangor Public Library; Kathryn Olmstead, associate professor of journalism at the University of Maine; and W. Gregory Swett, dean of students and enrollment management at EMCC.

Looking back on the bee, Michelle James, 14, who attends China Middle School and represented Kennebec County, said she wished she had asked Allen to define the word “osteitic,” which has to do with an inflammation of bone or bony tissue. After James misspelled the word, Guthrie spelled it and “lackadaisical” correctly and won.

Still, James said she fared better than she had anticipated and came further than she had in the past. Last year she didn’t make it past her class bee, and the year before, in sixth grade, she didn’t make it past her schoolwide bee.

“I didn’t expect to do so well,” James said. Her parents weren’t surprised, though.

Her mother, Marie-Anne James, said that Michelle soaked up reading like a sponge.

“She always had a book in her hand when she was younger,” the mother said.

After it was over, James shook Guthrie’s hand, congratulated him and told him he had done a “very good job.”

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins addressed the spellers, extolling their hard work, determination and practice – not to mention guts to go up onstage – that it took them to get where they were Saturday. Telling the spellers and their families in the audience that she was E-C-S-T-A-T-I-C to be there, Collins reminded them that spelling is more than following language rules; that it involves many fields of study, from science to history and mathematics.

At the county level, Guthrie had to spell “narcissus” correctly, a word Collins pointed out has connections to both botany and Greek mythology.

“Our language is amazingly rich,” she said. “It borrows the best words from all places and all times and puts them together in a colorful and ever growing quilt.”

Collins reminded the gathering that reading didn’t come naturally to them, that parents opened their first book and their teachers opened the world of reading to them.

“They encouraged you to excel, they pushed you when you were ready, and they lent a hand to you when you needed one,” she said.

They have started to light the fire within you, Collins told them. “Your inquiring minds will keep it blazing.”