After a tough five hours of competition Saturday, La Colina Junior High eighth-grader Quinn Hensley finished in second place in the 2011 State Junior High Spelling Bee held in San Rafael.

Quinn earned a trophy and a $250 savings bond.

In this written competition, spellers were eliminated after misspelling four words. Among the words Quinn spelled correctly during the final phase of the competition were:

» sacrilegious

» hootenanny

» gnomonic

» hornito

» catechist

» obloquy

» caryatid

» eclogue

» jactitation

» cascarilla

» rapacious

» cauterize

Quinn has had a great run at the state spelling competitions. As a Washington School student, In the State Elementary Spelling Bee, Quinn came in fourth place in fourth grade in the State Elementary Spelling Bee, second place in fifth grade and first place in sixth grade. He has finished second in both the seventh- and eighth-grade competitions in the State Junior High Spelling Bees.

In all, 52 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students competed Saturday in the championship, which was held at Miller Creek Middle School in San Rafael. Brandon Whitehead, a ninth-grader from the Academy of Higher Education in El Centro, Imperial County, won the California State Junior High Spelling Bee Championship. Liam Twight, an eighth-grader from Pacheco School in Redding, Shasta County, finished third.

— Kathleen Hensley is the p-r-o-u-d mom of Quinn Hensley.