The students at First Baptist buzzed in and stung like a bee at their first district spelling competition.

The school had three students place in the regional bee, held for 1st through 4th graders.

“The students all did very well,” said Judith Milner, spelling bee coordinator at First Baptist. “We were all very, very pleased, and the children were so excited.”

Noelle Ray won first place, and Katie Glover won second place in the fourth-grade division; and Noah Hill placed first in the second-grade division.

It was the first year the school had participated in a district spelling bee.

“Someone presented us the information, which we’ve looked for in the past, and we were able to get in under the wire and participate,” Milner said.

Each class held an in-class tournament to pick four representatives, and three from the fourth grade, for the competition.

Students then spent a few afternoons a week and studied at home the spelling bee list, which was three pages, each with six columns of single-spaced words.

“The students only had about three weeks to study the lists,” Milner said. “They all worked really hard and we’re very proud. Especially, since it was our first year. We plan on doing it next year.”