Nine divisions sought for the College Days’ UTAKAN Spelling Bee 2016 Champion title as the contest took place this Feb. 17, at Martin Hall’s fourth floor.

The spelling competition was judged by Languages Dept. Chair Dr. Stella Marie Arcenas, Arts and Literature Dept. Chair Dr. Rhodora Ranalan,  and Languages Dept. faculty member Dr. Josyl Hey Aquilam.

Contestants included BSA 4 students from the Accountancy Cluster (ACC): Yahairah Guimla and Mary Tabaloc. BSBM 2 from the Business and Management (B&M): Tiara Alicando and Angelica Jumalon. BSCS 3 students from the Computer Studies (CS): Lianne Lik and Christine Zosa.

Also able to compete were ABMC 4 and 2 from Humanities and Letters (HumLet: Vanessa Madrazo and Jude Millares, respectively. BSBio 2 students from the Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM): Mary Gabini and Kristianne Llamera. School of Engineering and Architecture’s (SEA) Rogelio Adlawan Jr. a BSEE 5 student, and Nicole Molina, a BSCE 5 student.

Completing the 9 pair-contenders were School of Education’s (SOE) Elleanor Bermasor, BEED-Engl 1 and Rhea Valdez, BSED-Engl 4. Joan Odi and Adylaine Espina, BSN 4 from the School of Nursing (SON). And lastly, Social Sciences’ (SS) Justine Suyo and Joanna Peligro, both AB-Socio 3.

Power outage temporarily paused the contest just before the second word was to be given. But the competitive atmosphere of both the participants and even the crowd was untamed, still.

The competition was divided into three rounds; easy round hailed ACC and SEA as perfect scorers with both 20-points, (10 words with corresponding 2-points each); average round with SEA leading with their 55-points over 75-points, (with 15 words, each worth 5-points); and difficult round with ACC with a leading score of 80-points, (150-points composed of 15 words with 10-points per word for this particular round).

The points were accumulated from the first round to the last, with no elimination round, and a penalty of deduction of points from final scores to the duo who failed to comply with the contest’s rules and regulation.

UTAKAN Spelling Bee 2016 announced SEA’s Adlawan and Molina as its champion with 135 accumulated points; first runner-up was 133.5-points of ACC’s Guimla and Tabaloc; Suyo and Peligro of SS with their 98-points was declared second runner-up.