Gabriel Loot, an eighth-grader at Harding Middle School, placed first in the Steubenville City School District Spelling Bee held Wednesday at Harding Middle School. Loot correctly spelled “clandestine,” an adjective meaning to have kept secret or to have done secretively, to claim the win. Taking part in the awards ceremony were, from left, Loot; Susie Safranski, an eighth-grader at Bishop John King Mussio Junior High School, second; Mayaunna Mitchell, an eighth-grader at Harding Middle School, third; Johanna Dennis, a sixth-grader at Bishop John King Mussio Junior High School, fourth; Patrick Vranish, a sixth-grader at Bishop John King Mussio Junior High School, fifth; and Mark Grace, an eighth-grader at Bishop John King Mussio Junior High School, alternate. The top five spellers and alternate will advance to the Jefferson-Harrison County Regional Spelling Bee, presented by the Herald-Star, at 11 a.m. March 8 at Buckeye North Elementary School in Brilliant.

— Warren Scott