By JOYANNA LOVE/Senior Staff Writer

CLATON — Nervousness abounded for five Clanton Intermediate Students on Jan. 11 as they participated in the spelling bee that would qualify one of them to continue on to the county level.

Fifth-grade student Elijah Romine was named the winner after correctly spelling nuisance. Elijah said he was “proud” and it was “honoring” to win.

“[I] was very nervous at the beginning,” Elijah said.

He said many of the words were ones he had not studied previously.

He will compete in the county wide spelling bee on Feb. 21.

Fifth-grade student Claire Williams was the runner-up.

“It’s an honor,” Claire said.

The word “holocaust” came as a surprise to both finalists.

“I wasn’t expecting a German word in an Alabama spelling bee,” Elijah said.

Elijah said he had wanted to participate in the past but did not get a chance.

The spelling bee had started off with the word tree, gradually getting more difficult as the round went on. Students had to say the word, spell the word and then say the word again. Students could ask for the definition or to have the word used in a sentence.

Once it was down to two students, if a student missed a word their opponent was given the same word. To win, the students had to correctly spell this word and correctly spell the next word they were given.

Both finalists were tripped up by orchestra, antidote, charismatic and functionary. Since both students misspelled the word, both students remained in the bee.

Students qualified for the bee by reaching a predetermined score on a written spelling test. CIS had 116 fourth and fifth grade students take the written test.