It took 12 hard-fought rounds to do it, but Grant Smith of Chestatee Academy is the winner of the 2017 Hall County Spelling Bee.
Smith and Ali Crump, a 7th grader from East Hall Middle School, battled back and forth for the last several rounds, stumbling on words such as "remonstrance" and "ascetic" and "aspidistra." Ultimately, the 8th grader correctly spelled back-to-back words "antibiotic" and "mesa" for the title.
Both Smith and Crump will represent the Hall County School District at the District Spelling Bee on February 25 at Mabry Middle School in Marietta. Third-place finisher Jordan Crooke, a 6th grader from Davis Middle School, will be the alternate for the school district.
The annual Bee was held Thursday morning at the Academies of Discovery in Oakwood. A total of 29 students - one from each elementary school and three from each middle school - were part of the competition.
