By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Kandence Willis won the seventh- and eighth- grade spelling bee at Verbena High School on Jan. 26.

Snow days and scheduling conflicts led to seventh- and eighth- grade students at Verbena High School having their own spelling bee this year.

Each grade at Verbena holds a class spelling bee to determine the top two spellers to compete in the school-level bee.

The seventh and eighth grades had been unable to hold a classroom bee before the schoolwide competition, so a separate bee was held for these classes’ representatives.

Winners from both of the school’s bees will participate in the countywide spelling bee on Feb. 2 at LeCroy Career Technical Center at 8:30 a.m.

Willis, a seventh-grade student, said it felt “really good to win.”

“I studied and my grandmother helped me pronounce some of the words,” Willis said. “I had confidence in myself and I knew I could do it.”

While she has competed in the spelling bee in previous years, Willis said this was her first year to win.

She said she plans to continue to study and have confidence in her abilities going into the county level bee.

For runner-up Gavin Spainhoward, it was the first time he had competed in the spelling bee. He said he had wanted to compete because he thought he could do well. Spainhoward said he now thinks he could have studied a bit more in preparation.