NATCHEZ &045;&045; M-O-S-A-I-C.

That was a word in the final round of the Natchez-Adams School District spelling bee that Guy Wimberly spelled correctly. Even though mosaic wasn’t the final word, the eighth-grader said it was harder than the actual winning word, topaz.

Wimberly first survived his classroom spelling bee and the Robert Lewis Middle School bee. &uot;They lined us up in the lunchroom and gave us each a word,&uot; Wimberly said of the school bee. &uot;If we get it wrong, we go back to our classes.&uot;

Spelling bee sponsor Linda Logan said about 120 students competed in the school bee. From there five RLMS students went to the district bee at the Braden central office. This year’s district bee consisted of students from RLMS, Morgantown and McLaurin elementary schools.

Wimberly said he did some studying to prepare for the school bee.

&uot;My mom got a list of words off the Internet, and I got a book from the school,&uot; he said. &uot;She would call it out, and I’d spell it.&uot;

Logan said Wimberly spelled more than 50 words throughout the process.

Wimberly will travel to the state spelling bee on March 25, but he’s not sure how well he’ll do. &uot;I don’t think I’ll get to the top five or the top 10,&uot; he said. Logan disagreed, saying she thought he’d do well. &uot;He’s just a natural speller,&uot; she said. &uot;He has a really good chance at state.&uot;

Wimberly also recently won the RLMS geography bee by placing within the Top 100 scores on a written test and was on the winning team in the Black History Month trivia bowl.

Currently Wimberly is finishing up his science fair project on the affects of age on short-term memory.

When he’s not participating in academic competitions he said he likes to play his guitar.