Lower Dauphin Middle School eighth-grader Daphne Linn completed a marathon spelling bee on Dec. 4, winning with the word "behavior" to take the title.

The bee lasted for 21 rounds until a champion was finally crowned. For a third of the bee, only Daphne and runners-up Lucia Faulkenberry and Abigail Nop remained, spelling words from the approved study list and then from the emergency list of additional words. Both sixth-graders, Lucia placed second and Abigail was the third-place finisher.

The girls were among the school's top 18 spellers competing in the bee. The other spellers were Jacob Sholder, Lucia Shertzer, Ben Velez, Neli Rodriguez, Olivia Fureman, Silas Wright, Nova Mayer, Dylan Kreiss, Riley Gonzalez, Alexis Stump, Lily Mayer, Keaton Wagner, Riley Beers, Kameron Flynn, and Maddy Fureman.

Due to COVID-19, the bee looked different this year with the spellers wearing masks and sitting 6 feet apart on the stage. They only removed their masks to spell and then wiped down the microphone with disinfectant wipes after their turn. There was no audience for the bee, although it was livestreamed by the high school's Falcon Broadcast Channel so parents could watch their students spell.

The students will next take a semifinal written test in the hope of earning a spot in the WITF Central Pennsylvania Spelling Bee, which will be held in February. Top spellers on the written test will participate in the televised the WITF Grand Championship Spelling Bee, which then can lead to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.