AMHERST – Sixth-grader Anthony Romano won the annual Amherst Middle School Spelling Bee on Thursday, Jan. 9.

The competitive group went 13 rounds, a first for the AMS bee. Anthony Romano was declared the winner when he spelled the word “presumptuous” correctly. Eighth-grader Kaileigh Row was the runner-up.

The State Spelling Bee will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord on Saturday, March 1. School bee winners will compete in a written test in the morning to vie for the opportunity to participate to the verbal bee in the afternoon. The champion will go to Washington, D.C., in the spring to compete in the national spelling bee.

Finalists in the AMS bee were:

GRADE FIVE – E.J. Belter, Anna Goyette, Ethan McFee and David Pieper.

GRADE SIX – Romano, Vishy Adusumilli, Soleil Gookin and Noel Stoncius.

GRADE SEVEN – Alana Hoskins, Abby Kirk, Josh Lacaillade and Khaled Nazeer.

GRADE EIGHT – Row, Sean Corrigan, Sean Johnson and Duncan McGrath.