Plum Grove eighth-grader wins Dist. 15 spelling bee
Tony Lu, an eighth-grader at Plum Grove Junior High, won the District 15 Spelling Bee, which was held Monday, Jan. 9, at Walter R. Sundling Junior High.
Tony held off a game challenge by second-place finisher Arash Abbas, a sixth-grader at Willow Bend School, to win the contest in the 24th round. His winning word was enthusiasm.
Tony and Arash both won their respective school spelling bees to advance to the District competition, as did 18 other students:
• Aviral Saxena, Grade 6, Jane Addams School
• Rebecca Mathew, Grade 6, Central Road School
• Sathvik Kakanuru, Grade 4, Winston Campus Elementary
• Natalia Koval, Grade 6, Winston Campus Elementary
• Madison Mayer, Grade 6, Kimball Hill School
• Sharon Kim, Grade 6, Hunting Ridge School
• Marcelina Kosla, Grade 5, Thomas Jefferson School
• Tim Okonek, Grade 5, Marion Jordan School
• Bruno Funez, Grade 5, Lake Louise School
• Gabrielle Cervantes, Grade 6, Lincoln School
• Besher Jabri, Grade 5, Stuart R. Paddock School
• Flora Zheng, Grade 5, Pleasant Hill School
• Joseph Edozie, Grade 4, Gray M. Sanborn School
• Kiley Fletcher, Grade 5, Virginia Lake School
• Pragya Kansal, Grade 5, Frank C. Whiteley School
• Sydney Hill, Grade 8, Carl Sandburg Junior High
• Jade Danford-Klein, Grade 7, Walter R. Sundling Junior High
• Matthew Teehan, Grade 7, Winston Campus Junior High
Tony will now move on to compete in the Suburban Cook Northern Area Spelling Bee, which will be held Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. at Joseph Sears School in Kenilworth.
The winner of that contest will advance to compete in the Suburban Cook County Spelling Bee, which will be held Feb. 22 at Mannheim Middle School in Melrose Park.
The winner of the Suburban Cook County Spelling Bee will advance to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held May 27 through June 1 in Washington, D.C.
-- Story submitted by Community Consolidated School District 15