Santa Rosa Elementary’s Johnny Phan new district spelling bee champ(video)

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After nearly 10 rounds Santa Rosa Elementary student Johnny Phan was crowned spelling bee champion for the Maricopa Unified School District.

As the champion Phan will represent the district in the countywide spelling bee championship Feb. 20 in Casa Grande.

When asked where he was going to put his trophy, Phan could not decide, but he did say he was excited about the win.

The spelling contest started off with 16 contestants. However, during the first round only one, Joe Pearlstein, was able to spell a word correctly.

In order to be declared champion the contestant was required to spell two words correctly back to back. When Pearlstein failed to spell his second word correctly, the full contingent of contestants returned for a third round.

In that third round the field was narrowed to six: Daryn Viser of Pima Butte, Taylor Weeks of Butterfield Elementary, Joe Pearlstein of Desert Wind Middle School, Johnny Phan of Santa Rosa Elementary, Tyler Haddad of Saddleback Elementary and Ezekial Lanpheare of Santa Cruz Elementary.

These contestants battled through several rounds with Phan eventually being declared the winner.

The runner up was Haddad, and second runner up was Pearlstein.

Photo and video by Michael K. Rich