Dual winners named for annual Marion County Spelling Bee
< Watch ESPN's 26th Scripps National Spelling Bee on ESPN, May 28-30. >
Marion County, Florida – Seventeen middle school students from throughout Marion County went head-to-head, Tuesday evening, May 29, to become Marion County’s 2024 Spelling Bee champions.
The 22nd annual event ended after 22 rounds, including the last 18 rounds with just two students - Cali Godwin and Kathy Ly - battling it out for the title. Both were named as the top spellers following the judges’ decision to end the event with dual winners.
Cali Godwin, an eighth grader at Belleview Middle School, and Kathy Ly, a seventh grader at Liberty Middle School, walked away as the county’s champions, each winning a medal and cash prize from the Woman’s Club of Ocala, the event’s long-time sponsor along with Marion County Public Schools.
While Godwin and Ly collectively had five opportunities to capture the individual title by spelling a championship word, the two winning words ended up being “stigmata” and “ulna.”
Participating students represented the following middle schools: Belleview, Blessed Trinity, Dunnellon, Fort King, Fort McCoy, Horizon Academy at Marion Oaks, Howard, Lake Weir, Liberty, and Osceola.
The annual spelling bee was held inside the Browne Greaton Cole Auditorium at Marion Technical Institute in Ocala. The event was recorded live for the MCPS YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/channel/UCn3ilIROJv28pi5u5LuLjyg), the event will not air until April 1, 2024 to protect the Scripps word list and integrity of the national competition. ESPN's 26th-annual Scripps National Spelling Bee can be viewed on the ESPN television network, May 28-30, 2024.
For more information, contact Marion County Public Schools Director of Public Relations Mark Ingram, by phone at 352-236-0519, or by email at mark.ingram@marion.k12.fl.us. Or learn more at www.spellingbee.com.