By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Dylan Jackson spelled his way through 25 rounds, ending with the word nestle, to become the Chilton County district spelling champion.

Jackson, who attends Jemison Intermediate School, said this was his first time making it to the district level.

He said he studied more this year than in previous years.

“Whenever I have free time at school, I just study the list words,” Jackson said.

Jackson will go on to compete at the state spelling bee on March 10.

Luke Turner of Thorsby High School came in second place. Turner said he was happy with second because of apprehension about competing in the state bee.

“It’s a lot of work to try and prepare and study all the words, and I’m not really good in front of a lot of people,” Turner said.

He said this was his first time to compete at the county level.

The words became more difficult as the rounds progressed. Some of the words correctly spelled during the championship rounds included: xylophone, wikiwiki, maraca, paddock, tortilla, antibiotic and biopsy.

At two different points in the championship rounds, both students misspelled their word, which meant both students were back in the competition.

A change in spelling bee rules now required that if a student misses a word during the championship round, the next student is given a new word, rather than being required to spell the word that the other student misspelled and an additional word as had been the case in previous years.

In total, eight students competed in the event. The opening word was spectrum. Some words that gave students trouble included: synonymy, threshold, fiend, contraband, newton and worrisome.

The spelling bee took place at LeCroy Career Technical Center, and several family members, friends and school system staff were in the audience.