The way Syra Gutow saw it, she deserved an award regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s Maine State Spelling Bee.

“I should get an award for strangest way of studying,” Gutow said, explaining that she went through the bee’s 1,200-word study guide daily, sprawled on the rug of her dining room floor at home in Castine.

“I do handstands, I play with the cat,” she said, describing how she passed the three to four hours daily she spent going through the words.

Her method may have been unconventional, but it paid off – Gutow won in the 57th round of the bee, outlasting Naomi Zarin of Friends School of Portland, representing Cumberland County.

Zarin and Gutow zipped through 23 rounds of head-to-head competition on the stage at Hannaford Hall on the Portland campus of the University of Southern Maine before Zarin finally missed on “fete,” spelling it “faight.” That opened the door for Gutow, representing Hancock County, who had to spell two words in a row to take the title.

She easily handled “cynosure,” which is something that attracts attention by its brilliance, and then “menhaden,” a common fish used primarily for oil and fertilizer.

Along with a couple of gifts and a full-size dictionary, Gutow wins a trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee to be held May 22-27 in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. The finals are broadcast nationally on ESPN.

The prospect of the trip excited her most, Gutow said after capturing the Maine crown.

At the national finals, the spellers take written spelling and vocabulary tests to qualify for the ultimate competition in the traditional bee format. The champion wins a $30,000 cash prize, a trophy, a $2,500 savings bond and a reference library.

The event Saturday lacked a bit of the drama of last year’s Maine bee, when two spellers went 90 rounds and judges had to go to an auxiliary list of words to complete the bee. The two finalists even exchanged misspellings for several rounds before Bryce Morales, who attends Berwick Academy and was representing York County, won.

This year, the field was winnowed down to four spellers fairly quickly, with Gutow and Zarin joined by Justin Pelletier of Madawaska Middle School in Aroostook County and Madeline Taylor, representing Piscataquis County.

Taylor even handled “madeleine,” the French cookie.

“I studied that,” she joked.

Unlike most competitors, Pelletier generally eschewed the help spellers can seek by asking for alternate pronunciations, definitions, origins of the words and hearing the words used in a sentence. He would hear the word from the pronouncer, then turn to the judges and rattle off the spelling.

But he was felled by “cravat,” when he added an “e” to the end of the word, which is the name for a fancy necktie.

Then Gutow and Zarin easily handled most of their words, although Zarin struggled a bit with “terrapin,” a type of turtle. She said “t,” and then paused, spelling the word on her arm with a finger, before going on to complete the word. But she didn’t seem to have any trouble with the other words until “fete.”

All of the spellers won county bees earlier this year to qualify for the statewide competition.

The Maine State Spelling Bee is sponsored by MaineToday Media, which publishes the Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel and The Coastal Journal.

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