Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Austin Booth, a fifth-grader at Athens-Chilesburg Elementary, won the 2011 Fayette County Spelling Bee.

Austin received a $75 cash prize after beating out 66 other youths from public, private, parochial and home schools on Feb. 15. The runner-up was Alexandra Whitley, an eighth-grader at SCAPA Bluegrass. Third place went to Erin Christopher, a seventh-grader at Edythe J. Hayes Middle School.

The countywide contest, which is open to grades 4 through 8, is sponsored by Kentucky Farm Bureau and the Kentucky Derby Festival. Austin will represent Fayette County in the state spelling bee March 19 in Louisville.

For more information, call Farm Bureau’s Carrie Johnson at (859) 253-0023.