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Until he participated in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May, Niwot’s Ben Lenger, 12, and his family didn’t realize that such competitions are virtually unknown in countries where English is not spoken.

Ben Lenger is surprisingly nonchalant about winning the 2017 Barnes & Noble Regional Spelling Bee. But perhaps that’s no surprise. The seventh grader at Sunset Middle School in Longmont is an old hand at spelling bees, and has learned that anything can happen.

Cameron Keith is a consummate word guy. He’s also 10 years old. Cameron made it to the semifinals in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee and was poised to advance to the finals when he was asked to spell “noncompos.”