Willow Lane Elementary School in Macungie held the first annual spelling bee Jan. 16 in the school auditorium.

Eighteen students competed in fourth grade with Ryan Latchford winning in the seventh round.

Twelve fifth grade students competed with Maia Nimeh winning in the seventh round after battling it out with Lin Luo over several words. Nimeh won by spelling the word "sentimental" correctly.

The words started out easy and got pregressively harder each round.

Fourth grade teacher Karen Durigan, with many years experience running spelling bees, gave the spellers their words.

The rules were strict and audience members were forbidden to help by using gestures of any kind and were told to remain silent.

Judging was done by fifth grade teacher Sean Finnegan and gifted teacher Julia Dweck.