Editor’s note: This press release was provided by the Pelham Union Free School District.

Congratulations to 8th grader Gianluca Polenzani (Pelham Middle School), 3rd grader Veda Jain (Hutchinson School) and 4th grader Jai Wakins (Colonial School) for finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in the annual Pelham Public Schools annual Spelling Bee which was held on June 3.

The tournament, which is generously supported by the PTAs, began with 15 students in grades 3-8 who advanced to the tournament by placing in the top 3 in their respective school-wide bees. Over the course of 43 rounds, the students competed for the rights to be Pelham’s top speller with Gianluca and Veda facing off head-to-head in rounds 8-43 before Gianluca won with the word “Litany.” Gianluca, Veda and Jai were each awarded a Merriam-Webster dictionary donated by Merriam-Webster President Gregory Barlow, a Pelham resident.

In addition to the three top finishers, this year’s participants were:

Colonial

William Gallagher, Gr. 3

Penelope McGibbon, Gr. 3

Hutchinson

Reagan Bardolf, Gr. 4

Mason Wan, Gr. 3

Prospect Hill

Nils Agerberg, Gr. 3

Sandy Joachim, Gr. 3

Laila Sakhrani, Gr. 3

Pelham Middle School

Henry Brandler, Gr. 8

Nishika Sing, Gr. 6

The District would like to extend in sincerest gratitude to this year’s pronouncer, PMHS English Teacher Neil Schleifer and judges Lynn Sabia, PMS Principal, Sean Llewellyn, PMS Assistant Principal and Dr. Maria Thompson, Director of Humanities as well as teachers William Chimento (Pelham Middle School), Kate Alix (Hutchinson School), Kara Weiss (Prospect Hill School), Amanda Sozio (Siwanoy School) and Christine Lavin (Colonial School), who served as spelling bee coaches.