Middle Schools crown spelling bee champs

W.T. Clarke and Woodland middle schools recently held their annual spelling bee tournaments, with dozens of students competing for the top prize.

This year, the top spellers were Joel Matthew at Clarke, and Renata Quinto at Woodland. Matthew defeated 27 of his classmates en route to victory, and Quinto bested 17 other contestants.

The two students will advance to the regional competition of the Scripps Spelling Bee at Hofstra University on Feb. 9.

Clarke finalists
Nicole Artoglou
Nyla Batista
Joe Buffolino
Yuktha Chiguripati
Joe Collica
Kevin Conley
Aleksandra Dauz
Vincent Joaquin
Uzair Khan
Lauren Lorusso
Brandon Luk
Maura Lynch
Brendan Mark
Jennifer Nagri
Madison Normile
Robin Ouseph
Arjun Panickssery
Kathryn Raduazzo
Ankit Sayed
Anthony Schilt
Aashini Shah
Marisa Simone
Allesio Sivio
Arianna Sivio
Nicole Valis
Ryan Walsh
Natalie Zuniga

Woodland finalists
Rayaa Anglada
Patrick Cruz
Ashley Dacanay
Jack Katz
Zahra Lakhani
Kevin Martin
Mariel Mathew
Nigel McKnight
Esha Misra
Natalia Murillo
Matthew Owens
Anjali Sharma
Adeel Sheikh
Elisabeth Shin
Danielle Skibins
Anthony Stabile
Robert Watson