Osage County’s top spellers, standing from left, Addison Howard, Keaton Kraus, Iris Sherry, Brayden Jones, Tenley Brown, Jenevieve Espinosa, Ryne Cormode, Braylee Patterson, kneeling, Dylan Beam and champion Loki McClintock.
OSAGE CITY, Kan. – A fast-paced spelling bee challenged the top 10 local spellers Thursday, with Osage County’s 2025 spelling champion, Lyndon Middle School eighth-grader Loki McClintock, claiming the title in eight rounds.
Contestants in the Feb. 27, 2025, spelling bee were the top spellers from the county’s five elementary and middle schools: Burlingame, Iris Sherry, 8th grade, Addison Howard, 7th; Carbondale, Jenevieve Espinosa, 6th, Brayden Jones, 6th; Lyndon, Loki McClintock, 8th, Tenley Brown, 7th; Marais des Cygnes Valley, Ryne Cormode, 7th, Braylee Patterson, 7th; Osage City, Dylan Beam, 6th, Keaton Kraus, 7th. (Osage City alternate, Reed Cruchelow; Lyndon alternate, Tanner Totty; MdCV alternate, Camille Davis.)
This year’s bee was hosted by Osage City Elementary and Middle Schools, and Tabatha Renfro, PK-12 reading specialist, served as word announcer. Also assisting with the bee were OCEMS staff Kathy Reed and Brian Stromgren, and principals Tim Riemann and Dena Paul.
The contestants were offered a practice round to test the mike and their spelling voices, but nervous jitters still seemed to take its toll on spellers in the first official round. Words such as cactus, literally, botany, and dawdle eliminated four incorrect spellers. The remaining six contestants delivered steady and correct responses in round two, but the words puniness, banquet and floridly eliminated half of the field in round three.
Round four pitted the county’s top three spellers against each other, Ryne Cormode, Loki McClintock, and Dylan Beam. Unfortunately, the word cathedral tripped up Ryne, leaving Loki and Dylan in a two-speller scramble.
Offering each other well wishes as they traded places at the microphone, both had two solid rounds. Round five: Dylan, cello; Loki, solitude; both correct. Round six; Dylan, heist; Loki, irrigation; both correct.
Round seven led to Dylan feeling a little “morose” as he misspelled that word. To claim the round, Loki correctly spelled astonish. Loki then finalized his Osage County 2025 Spelling Champion title attempt by correctly spelling “attempt.”
The win in the Osage County bee makes Loki eligible to compete in the Sunflower State Spelling Bee, which will be 9 a.m. Saturday, March 22, 2025, at Kansas Wesleyan University, Salina, Kan. Dylan will serve as Osage County’s alternate speller.
Plaques were presented to Loki and Dylan and all of the spellers received medals to commemorate their achievement as a competitor in the county spelling bee.
Words announced during the bee: Round 1, blink, cactus, sword, bleat, delta, onion, abolish, literally, botany, dawdle; round 2, bristle, carriage, furnace, gaggle, apology, jitterbug; round 3, puniness, elevator, banquet, elusive, floridly, conch; round 4, arrive, agitation, cathedral; round 5, cello, solitude; round 6, heist, irrigation; round 7, morose, astonish; round 8, attempt.
