Tense contest spells p-r-e-s-s-u-r-e.

Byline: MATT COOPER The Register-Guard

Matthew Rooks hunched low over his paper, building a wall of arms around his answers that was impregnable to wandering eyes.

This was serious stuff - a countywide spelling contest - and the 11-year-old from Eugene's Lifegate Christian School wasn't taking chances. "At our school," Rooks said, "even with the young kids they will rip up your paper if they see a cheat."

Might not have mattered if somebody had sneaked a peek. Contestants in Thursday's spelling contest at the Lane Education Service District toiled with words that may have looked like Greek to the rest of us.

The district reinstated the countywide contest last year, and this year's winners are off to state competition in August.

But there's a crucial difference between the contest and the infamous spelling bees of yore: Students wrote their spellings down and turned them in like homework, rather than spell the words out loud, sweaty-palmed, before big crowds.

"It has to do with the comfort level for kids," coordinator Robert Young said. "People had objections to the pressure of them standing up in front of people."

Eighteen contestants broke into three groups - first through fifth grades, sixth through eighth and ninth through 12th - and wrote down spellings for 30 words delivered by assistants.

The youngest kids faced humdingers that included "colossal," "sluices" and "embarrassed" (every reporter's nightmare).

The middle kids wrestled with "recurrence" and "hygienist," and the oldest kids took on words that seemed hatched from a distant planet - "abecedarian" and "bombycid" (it's a kind of moth).

At one point, 11-year-old Katie O'Ryan of Territorial School in Cheshire engaged herself in an animated silent discussion, ending it with a shrug of her shoulders and a rolling of the eyes.

But it wasn't concern, she said - "I was just, like, waiting for the next word."

When everything was spelled and done, first-place finishes were awarded to three Springfield students: Halcyon Binder, 10, of Guy Lee Elementary; Ryan Gregg, 12, of Springfield Middle School; and Caitlin King, 16, of Springfield High School.

King was thrilled with the prospect of state competition, adding, "now I get to do it again."

Her mother, Sheryl, was also delighted, having watched Caitlin's long-running love of words blossom at an early age.

"When she was 4 years old," Sheryl said, "I was working in the yard and she was asking me the difference between 'notorious' and 'nefarious.' Needless to say, after I shut my mouth I went to the dictionary."

CAPTION(S):

THOMAS BOYD / The Register-Guard Matthew Rooks, 11, of Lifegate Christian School, keeps his eyes on his own paper while writing down his answers at the Lane County Spelling Contest.