Nearly 50 students sat inside the library of Glenpool Middle School awaiting a chance to win the school's second straight spelling bee contest and after multiple rounds, 7th grader, Matthew Winters, walked away the champion.
Winters, who appeared in his first spelling bee final, battled last year's winner, Dawson McClure, in a head-to-head matchup lasting multiple rounds.
Event after preparing for hours leading up to the competition, Winters says he had no expectation of winning the 2016 Glenpool spelling bee trophy.
"I would have never seen myself holding this trophy, ever. Even while studying. I expect myself to do well, but just holding this is so overwhelming," Winters said.
Winters is now entered into the Scripps Spelling Bee regional competition where some of Oklahoma's best spellers will take center stage for bragging rights and a chance to appear in the national competition near Washington, D.C.
Organized by the language arts department at GMS, the spelling bee competition was intended to remind students the importance of grammar and literacy according to seventh grade teacher, Vanessa Stice.
"It's so important and it's why our principal decided he wanted us to have a spelling bee again and to kind of keep kids interested in that almost lost art of spelling," Stice said.
Although many of the words presented to the students were confusing and difficult, it was the word bedlam (used to refer to the yearly match-up between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University) which crowned the 2016 GMS spelling bee champion.
"I think it's ironic that our championship word was bedlam, but I think Matthew and I are fellow pokes fans so it's okay," Stice said.
