They went back and forth for eight rounds, sending words across the stage. In the end, it was a tricky "y" disguised as a vowel that spelled the end for one team.
At Tuesday's Gainesville-Hall County Alliance for Literacy 20th annual spelling bee, a group from Lanier Technical College went home with the prize for correctly spelling "plethysmography" when their competitors placed an "i" where the "y" was meant to be. It was "syzygy," defined as the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies, that won them the final prize for the second year in a row.
The alliance's bee is a cornerstone in the group's literacy awareness outreach. Ten teams from around the county donated $1,200 to participate in the event.
The wordsmith and emcee, Gay Hammond, has been with the bee nearly since it started, and she is at its core, joking and correcting pronunciations on stage.
"Ludicrous," she said slowly to team 10, giving them their word. "Not like the rapper. Just so you know, a little hint for life. Rappers, not spellers."
The bee's rules are fairly simple. If a group spells a word correctly, it moves on. If the members misspell a word, they get one opportunity to "buy back" their mistake with a $100 donation. Two mistakes mean elimination.
The event started off on the Brenau University Pearce Auditorium stage with an easy word, and the Brenau Bells from the university spelled "affinity" without flinching. The next team, though, the Sooper Spellers from Cargill, got tripped up on "pavilion."
One "l," not two.
It was "anhinga," a long-necked bird also known as a water turkey that knocked that group out a few rounds later.
Sam Whitney, a Cargill production supervisor, had simple parting words.
"Cargill's coming back next year and we're going to be a force to be reckoned with," he said.
Most teams breezed through the first few rounds. It was in round three, described by Hammond as "kind of a violent round," where things got messy. Every word was one misspelled in previous years.
One group stumbled on "pachyderm," an order of mammals that includes elephants and rhinoceroses. "Psittacine," something that resembles a parrot, undid a group of bibliophiles from the Hall County Library and the Hall County Book Exchange.
After many rounds of silent letters and tricky prefixes, just two teams were left standing.
Gainesville Mayor Ruth Bruner's team, the Circuit Riders from the First Methodist Church, had skillfully handled monsters like "bigeminy," "porphyry" and "gigue," before messing up "plethysmography."
After spelling the winning word, the A Bee C's from Lanier Technical College said they'd certainly be back to defend their title next year. The team included Debbie Killip, Ruth Perry and Mellisa Dalton.
Dorothy Shinafelt, the alliance's executive director, said the group's two annual fundraising events, the bee and a 24-hour read-a-thon are meant to be fun but also to carry a deeper message.
"We always use these events to raise literacy, to get out into the community and talk to people about the illiteracy rate, the high school dropout rate, the number of adults that come to us at a zero to fourth grade reading level."
Shinafelt said convincing the community there is a need for adult literacy programs is often difficult and many are out of touch with the pervasive problem. But improving literacy rates benefits the entire community, she said.
"There are some that come to us at a zero to fourth grade reading level," Shinafelt said. "Hopefully we can get them up to an eighth or ninth grade. Are these folks going to get their GED? Probably not, but they'll write us letters of thanks and say ‘I can read to my child now.'"