He's no scoundrel, but he sure can spell it

What do a rhombus and a scoundrel have in common?

They were the winning words for 11-year-old Gabriel Mitchell in the 59th Annual Yuma County Spelling Bee.

"I generally read a lot, so it soaks in a lot when I do that," said the winning sixth-grader, who is home-schooled. "(My parents) teach my phonics, but that is all."

Mitchell qualified to the county competition by winning the Home Educators of Yuma spelling bee, a local support group for home educators.

The last local spelling bee a home-schooled student won was in 2003.

He faced off with eighth-grader Lysandra Marquez, from Castle Dome Middle School, in the sixth and final round on Wednesday.

Marquez first spelled "unimpeded" correctly, followed by Mitchell's proper spelling of "simultaneously." Marquez then failed to spell "brigand" correctly, giving Mitchell a shot at the word, which he could not spell, either.

It was then up to Marquez to spell "rhombus." After her failed attempt, Mitchell spelled it properly and was given "scoundrel" to see if he could secure his win.

"They started easy and they got hard," Mitchell said about the words in the competition. "I wasn't that confident. 'Simultaneously' was the hardest one."

"Some of them are hard, and some of them are easy," Marquez said about the words. "I did OK. You learn more about words and if you don't get it right, then there is next time."

Forty-nine local fourth- through eighth-graders competed in the county-wide spelling bee. Mitchell will advance to the April 2 Arizona State Spelling Bee to compete against 25 other spellers. The winner of the state competition will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.

Winners of the local competition received a T-shirt and a Merriam-Webster 11th edition dictionary.

Southwestern Christian School eighth-grader Erika Sanders had an interesting competition when she was eliminated from the second round after spelling "nitrite" correctly.

"I thought that I was judged unfairly and I knew it was right," she said.

Peggy Lund, Yuma Elementary District 1 Director of Family and Community Support Services, pronounced the words for the competition.

From her official list, Lund gave Sanders the word "nitrite," which she spelled correctly But the judges had "nitrate" on their official lists. The judges rang the bell declaring a misspelled word.

Terry Ross and Randy Hoeft, editors at The Sun and spelling bee judges, agreed with a protest that the matter should be clarified at the completion of the round. There was a discrepancy between the pronouncer's list and the judges' list; the judges decided to use the pronunciator's list, which revoked the elimination.

"I felt a little bit better because I felt like I was going to argue, because I knew that it was right," Sanders said.

Sanders was then officially eliminated in the fifth round.

"I think the kids did great and they asked very good questions to help them with the spelling," Lund said.

The spelling bee was sponsored by the Yuma County School Superintendent's Office, The Sun's Newspapers in Education, the City of Yuma Arts and Culture Division, the Yuma Arts Center and Pepsi.

Mitchell said he plans on practicing more for the state competition than he did for the local spelling bee.

"If I practice a lot, I'd say I'll do OK," he said. "Maybe get into the nationals...yeah."