The gym at Bloomingdale Elementary was filled with students from both schools cheering loudly for their friends, growing completely silent when it came time to spell a word and trying their best to not shout out the spellings of words they knew themselves.

There were gasps from the students when a word like “humanitarian” or “diabolical” was announced. The two school’s principals, Katie Laba and Bryan Munn, admitted they needed the word sheet to check spellings for some of the words themselves.

Starting with words like “street” and “mercy,” and working up to “antagonism” and “peasantry,” the 16 starting students were whittled down to seven. Then, suddenly, five were out in one round, leaving only Henry Hann and Mason Fletcher. In the final rounds, if one student misspelled a word, the other had to spell a special “championship word” to seal the win.

As things ramped up inside the gym, thunder roared outside, setting the mood as the two went round for round, one taking the lead, then both falling back to even as they spelled words like “garbanzo,” “diminutive,” “sagacity” and “chilblains.”

Henry Hann gets a hug from his mom Molly after winning this year’s Petrova and Bloomingdale elementary school spelling bee. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

After several rotations, Hann took the championship title on the word “juniper.”

“I was nervous and excited,” he said afterwards. That final round was “really stressful,” but he always took a moment to think before spelling.

Hann said he studied for the past week-and-a-half for the contest. His win surprised parents Steve and Molly, but they knew he’d do well.

“He loves to read,” Molly said.

She said Henry is a well-rounded student. He plays plays with Fletcher on soccer team, too.

Mason Fletcher grins as he steps up the the mic once again during a heated spelling bee battle between him and Henry Hann at this year’s Petrova and Bloomingdale elementary school spelling bee. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Henry said he scored perfectly on a classroom spelling test recently, which prompted him to compete.

The annual elementary school spelling bee has been happening each year for around a decade and a half now.

Evie Zander grins after spelling a word correctly at this year’s Petrova and Bloomingdale elementary school spelling bee on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Wyatt Crosby, Henry Pelkey and Tyler Hebert applaud wildly for their friends at this year’s Petrova and Bloomingdale elementary school spelling bee on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)