Anamosa Student Wins Area Spelling Bee. Catherine Wilcox leads seven scholars to Des Moines finals in March.

February 5th, 2007, Catherine Wilcox, a 7th grader at West Middle School in Anamosa, correctly spelled the word "staccato" to win the 2007 Area X Regional Spelling Bee. Catherine is the daughter of Paul and Mindy Wilcox (and neice of Deb). Her sponsoring teacher for the competition was Linda Mazunik.

Catherine outlasted 16 other fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders from East Central Iowa in the contest held at Kirkwood Community College on January 31. She, with six other students, qualified for the state spelling competition.

The eastern Iowa finalists will join students from 14 other regional contests to compete March 3 at the Iowa Historical Building in Des Moines. The winner of the statewide competition in Des Moines will advance to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., the end of May.

The six other winners joining Catherine at the state competition are: Shea Sabin, McKinley Middle School, Cedar Rapids; Beth Chatterton, Midland Middle School, Lost Nation; Jemma Heigis, Marion Home School Association, Marion; Adam Millers, Northwest Junior High School, Coralville; Taylor Fulton, Washington Junior High School, Washington; Lindsey Ganoe, LaSalle Middle School, Cedar Rapids.

Staccato is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary as, "in music, with distinct breaks between successive tones; abrupt; detached; as, a series of staccato notes, a staccato passage; opposed to legato."

The Scripps Howard Area X Regional Spelling Bee is sponsored by the Kirkwood English department, Grant Wood Area Education Agency, and The Des Moines Register.