Jacki McKinnon retains Cabin Radio’s Adult Spelling Bee crown

Jacki McKinnon defended her title as the NWT’s greatest speller at the second edition of Cabin Radio’s Adult Spelling Bee on Saturday evening.

“It’s surreal. I studied like a moron,” McKinnon said following her win.

“It comes down to: you’ve got to be able to spell. But there’s a lot of luck, as well, in the words that you get.”

More than 100 people gathered at the Top Knight in Yellowknife to watch as McKinnon was crowned the territory’s adult spelling champion for the second year in a row.

Fifteen contenders, who won heats on Mornings at The Cabin throughout the month of September, faced off in three semi-final rounds to start the night.

Heather Heinrichs, Benjamin Karstad, Philip Boulton, John Inglis, Jessica Harte, Matthew Leung, Patrick Meloche, Garrett Hinchey, Sandy Brennan, Lauren Nolan, Anusa Sivalingam and Esther Ebbing ended their spelling bee journeys at the semi-final round.

Bhagyashri Pawar, Kristie Leach and McKinnon emerged victorious from those rounds and headed into the nail biting final round.

Leach and McKinnon had also made the final round at last year’s spelling bee alongside Katrina Leonardis, who was defeated in the on-air heats this year.

On Saturday, McKinnon looked poised to win early after Pawar and Leach were unable to spell lachrymose and abscission respectively, while McKinnon successfully spelled synecdoche.

To win the territorial title, spellers must not only win a round in the grand final but must then spell the “championship word,” a word – or words – related to the North.

The contest was kept alive when McKinnon failed to correctly spell Behdzi Ahda, of Colville Lake’s Behdzi Ahda’ First Nation, giving Pawar and Leach a second chance at glory.

While Pawar was knocked out of the competition after spelling diaphanous incorrectly, Leach and McKinnon continued to battle it out for the title. Leach spelled parallelogram and paroxysm correctly while McKinnon spelled emphysema and obsequious.

More: Watch clips from the on-air spelling bee heats

After Leach misspelled autochthonous and McKinnon correctly spelled sesquipedalian, McKinnon was given another chance to nab the crown.

She clinched the win by correctly spelling Deninu Kue, of the Fort Resolution-based Deninu Kųę́ First Nation, and took home two round-trip tickets to Vancouver from Air North as well as a flashy WWE-style championship belt.

For the second year running, the spelling bee played to a packed crowd and raised more than $3,000 for the NWT Literacy Council, which will go toward its delivery of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The book gifting program mails free books to children from birth until the age of five.

Several attendees at the spelling bee took home prizes either through winning a draw or correctly spelling challenging words during a lightning round. While crowd members were unable to spell cyrillic, oubliette, penurious and quatrefoil, among other difficult words, the three winners successfully spelled synod, ravigote and dactylic.

People danced the night away thanks to music from The Co-op.

The Explorer Hotel, Air North and Pido Productions were gold sponsors of the second edition of Cabin Radio’s Adult Spelling Bee.

Apex Property Management and Pest Control was a silver sponsor, while Sutherland’s Drugs and Signed were bronze sponsors.

Prizes were provided by Adam Dental Clinic, Javaroma, The Black Knight and Ricky’s All Day Grill.

Ollie Williams contributed reporting.