It’s a word that doesn’t roll easily off the tongue, and Elliott was faced with the task of correctly spelling the word at the state spelling bee Saturday on the Washburn University campus in Topeka.

Elliott, a seventh-grader at Tonganoxie’s Genesis Christian Academy, was Leavenworth County’s representative at the state bee.

Elliott correctly spelled “naturalism,” “samurai” and “predecessor” before he drew “justiciable.” In the end, Elliott finished an impressive 10th out of 105 competitors.

“Well, when I realized I was the tenth-best speller in all of Kansas, I was kind of surprised actually because I didn’t think I was going to do that well,” Elliott said.

If Elliott could have advanced to the final round, he would have had to spell “trigonometry.”

“I was kind of surprised, because the words before that were really, really, really, really hard,” Elliott said. “And then I thought trigonometry was an easy word, so I was surprised.”

Next year, Elliott will have a final shot at the state spelling bee. The state bee is open to students in fifth through eighth grades.