SANFORD — Some seemed confident; others, nervous. Relief could be seen in young faces when a student knew their answer was correct, and hesitance when the word was unfamiliar and they were spelling in rocky territory.

Eighteen students from 10 schools in York County gathered at Sanford Junior High School Tuesday for the county spelling bee.  Thirty minutes into the bee, half of the students remained in the contest. Fifteen minutes later,  a winner emerged.

Sam Hanson, 13, a student at Berwick Academy in South Berwick, correctly spelled “cosmos” to ace two competitors, and will be the county’s speller at the state bee in March.  Then, Noble Middle School student Bryce Collins spelled “stipple” to become the runner-up — he’ll attend the state meet if Hanson is unable to do so.

At the county bee, students on the junior high school stage were called on to spell a word. 

They could ask the word’s origin, definition, part of speech, for the word to be used in a sentence and for the pronouncer to repeat it.

In the audience, parents, other students and some teachers watched intently.

The students  started with words like “trek,”  “waltz,” “croon” and “tornado.”

Then came “womanly,” a word one student spelled as “womenly.”  Another mistook “fiend” for “feigned.”

Then came “dearth” and “diorama,” and a host of others, felling the students, one by one.

Participating students sat in two rows, standing to spell the word they’d been assigned, and after all students had spelled their words, the ones who spelled incorrectly were asked to leave the stage. 

The  York County Spelling Bee is  the precursor to the state spelling bee, set for March  25 at the University of Southern Maine in  Portland, where winners of the various county bees across Maine will sound out letters for the state title. Winner of the state bee goes on to the National Spelling Bee, held annually in May, in Washington, D.C.

The National Spelling Bee  has  been sponsored by the E. W. Scripps company since 1925, canceled only, according to online sources, during World War II.

Students advanced to the York County bee by winning classroom and school bees, according to Sanford Junior High School language arts teacher Sue Coveney, who organizes the event annually.

Students from Acton, Biddeford, Saco, Sanford, MSAD 6 (Noble) , MSAD 6 (Bonny Eagle) public schools participated, along with students who attend Berwick Academy, Sanford Connections Academy and Sanford Christian Academy.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.