The word was fabula: of Latin origin, meaning a tale or story. For one young girl, the rarely used word was the ticket to a trip to Washington, D.C., and a chance to compete with the best spellers in the nation at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.

Out of a field of 33, Lily Spalding, a seventh grader from Beaufort Middle School in Beaufort, spelled her way to this year’s winner of the 23^rd annual Downeast Regional Spelling Bee, held at the Turnage Theater in downtown Washington.

While Beaufort County Schools were strongly represented in the competition,  it was the Outer Banks crew that swept the event. Most competitors were knocked out in the first three rounds, but the remaining five spellers proved their spelling prowess. Along with Lily, Elizabeth Muller, a fifth grader from Cape Hatteras Elementary School, Peyton Cabral, a sixth grader at Cape Hatteras Secondary School, eighth-grader Christian DeMarco from First Flight Middle School in Kill Devil Hills, and Emily Meekins, a fifth grader from Manteo Elementary School, fielded such words as falconry, classicist, barbet, pluvial, plinth and pertinacious as they competed for top prize.

Peyton, last year’s third-place winner, dropped out in the ninth round, and Emily in the 12^th, leaving Christian, Elizabeth and Lily vying for first, second and third places. In Round 13, Christian would fall to the word “pique,” but it took another 10 rounds to determine whether Elizabeth or Lily would be making the trip to D.C. After several rounds where the lead shifted back and forth, “erroneously” would prove too much of challenge for Elizabeth, and Lily emerged the winner with “fabula”.

For 23 years, the Washington Daily News and PotashCorp-Aurora have cosponsored the bee that brings spellers, their friends and families to Washington from places as near as Greenville and as far away as Hatteras. In addition to the other prizes awarded to the winner by Scripps, traveling expenses, lodging and food in D.C. for Lily and a guardian comes courtesy of PotashCorp.

“We value the decades-long partnership with the WDN to sponsor the regional spelling bee. It’s amazing how composed and focused these young scholars are in an intense forum. They’re all winners regardless of which round they reach. We’re privileged to sponsor this event as part of our commitment to education and the community,” said Ray McKeithan, manager of public affairs for PotashCorp-Aurora.