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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Marley Holsomback won first place at the Clanton Intermediate School spelling bee on Dec. 12.

For several rounds, the top two spellers were gridlocked with students spelling their word correctly.

After runner-up Tayshaun Holloway eventually missed a word, Marley correctly spelled “accelerates” for the win.

“I thought I would do pretty well, I didn’t think I would do this well,” Marley, a fifth-grade student, said.

She said she was familiar with many of the words and had studied them a lot.

Marley will represent CIS at the countywide spelling bee on Jan. 21.

“It means a lot,” Marley said. “It’s really cool.”

She said she will continue to use apps to study and having her parents call words out to her to study for the county event.

Tayshaun, who is in fifth grade, said he had expected to at least get second place since he had last year.

“But my intentions were to get first place,” Tayshaun said.

He said he studied the words with his mom and grandmother asking him to spell them.

The entire bee went for a perhaps record setting 36 rounds.

Principal Louise Pitts said this was the longest the spelling bee had gone in several years.

“All of you should be proud of yourselves,” Pitts said.

The bee had begun with the word “barber.” Some words that proved difficult for students were disinfectant, charred, tissue, delivery, generation and discussion.

Students came up to the microphone in the auditorium to spell each word in front of a panel of three judges. If a word was spelled incorrectly, a judge would ring a bell and the student would be out.

Students could ask for the word to be repeated, for a definition, for it to be used in a sentence and for the part of speech.

Each class of fourth and fifth grade students at CIS held a spelling bee to determine who would compete in the Dec. 12 event.