Unionville’s Connolly wins Chester County Spelling Bee

DOWNINGTOWN — Katie Connolly, an eighth grader at Charles F. Patton Middle School, took first place as Chester County’s top speller in the Chester County Spelling Bee on Monday, Feb. 7. Winning with the word “antenatus” (A-N-T-E-N-A-T-U-S), Connolly will move on to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in June. “I think it will be fun to go to Washington, D.C. and I’m looking forward to meeting other kids who are as passionate about this as I am,” Connolly said.

Also placing in the 2022 Chester County Spelling Bee were: Sohum Bandyopadhyay of Owen J. Roberts Middle School; Anwen Deng of Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle School; Joey Samaritano of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School; and Luke Spano of Hopewell Elementary School, all of whom tied for second place. The third-place winner was Quinn Zvarick of Downingtown Middle School.

During the event, one student representative from 34 schools spelled his or her way through 260 words. Each participant in the Chester County Spelling Bee earned the invitation to compete by winning their individual school’s spelling bee. Students prepared for the county competition by studying Scripps-provided word lists and practicing at home. Connolly said that reading was key to her success: “I have always enjoyed reading and spend a lot of my spare time reading. That has really helped with spelling.”

As champion, Connolly received the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award certificate, a Barnes & Noble’s gift card, a one-year subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online and a one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online. The second-place winners received an Amazon gift card and an UpWords board game. The third-place winner took home an Amazon gift card and a Scrabble game.

To learn more about the Chester County Spelling Bee, visit www.cciu.org/Spelling-Bee or contact Jay Della Ragione at 484-237-5053 or

Ja**@cc**.org











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