WESTFIELD—When Christina Marini said “annoyance” last night it came with the feeling of relief, not frustration. That’s because Marini spelled the word correctly to win the city’s sixth annual Words with Friends city-wide 5th grade spelling bee.
A total of 14 students from the cities seven middle schools participated in the final round of the spelling bee last night, in a packed Dever Auditorium at Westfield State University last night. The 14 students were the finalists from the over 500 students that participated in the initial rounds of the spelling bee. The students were spelling to win prizes and to also to be named the city’s top speller, which ended up being Marini.
Christina Marini holds her first place trophy after winning the Words with Friends Spelling Bee
“During the competition I felt nervous, but during the end I felt confident,” Marini, from Munger Hill School, said. “I didn’t hesitate that much.”
Marini was able to out-spell 13 other students, but she had to go to six overtimes to beat second-place speller Andre Arkoette, of Southampton Road School. They battled back and forth, with one occasionally misspelling a word like “palatable” or “defamation,” but the other could not capitalize. In fact, at one point Arkeotte had misspelled “redundant” and Marini spelled it right, but she could not spell “curriculum,” which resulted in Arkeotte remaining in the competition.
The top three spellers. From left to right: Andre Arkeotte, Christina Marini, Ashish Sharma.
But then, after Arkeotte missed “equinox,” Marini knew that the finale had come. She spelled that word right, then stood at the microphone to spell the winning word—annoyance. And it didn’t sound like an annoyance at all. It sounded triumphant.
In third place was Ashish Sharma, of Paper Mill School, who also did quite respectably as well, but stumbled on the word “etiquette” to be eliminated.
Marini said that in order to prepare for the contest she began studying in November. And her family said that they were there to try and help every day.
“We all helped her study, especially her two older sisters Gena and Danielle,” Marini’s father Chris, said. “She didn’t stop studying since she got the book.”
All this studying helped Marini not only win, but to be confident heading in. She even prognosticated beforehand that the win was going to be hers.
The view from stage at the Words with Friends Spelling Bee.
“She was very confident,” her dad said. “Even driving over she said to her uncle in the car that she would win.”
The spelling bee was organized by the Circle K Club of Westfield State University—an affiliate of the Kiwanis Club—with assistance from the Westfield State Department of Academic Affairs and the Volunteers in Public Schools Program.
The judges for the contest were George Delisle, Fr. Joseph Soltysiak, Amanda Brodkin and Bob Plasse, and moderator was past Kiwanis Club President Adam Wright.
All finalists received medals for making it to the finals, while first place received a Kindle and a case for it, second place received a backpack and a plethora of school supplies and third place received various learning games and popular books.
The complete list of finalists were as follows: Serena Nicolle and Erin Popp (Abner Gibbs School); Noah Gilbert and Wunnyuriti Ziblim (Franklin Avenue School); Madison Koziol and Reeha Rizaan (Highland School); Marini and Jimmy Salzer (Munger Hill School); Sharma and Aria Sotolongo (Paper Mill School); Caroline Arbuzov and Grace Duffy (Russell School); and Arkoette and Jaden Dekastrozza (Southampton Road School).
