NORTH ROBINSON — The final three spellers at the Crawford County Spelling Bee created suspense as the competition showed little edge.
Alex Wion, Alli Scott and Drew Johnson lasted three perfect rounds together. Then Alex spelled the champion word, “Kinetic,” leaving Alli the runner-up trophy. Drew, a fourth grader at Wynford Elementary School, misspelled “Dactyl” at William Crawford Intermediate School Thursday night, but finished third.
“I was thinking, ‘That was an easier word (to spell) than I expected,'” said Alex, an eighth grader at Bucyrus Secondary School.
In the earlier rounds, Alex stumbled spelling the word, “Recitalist,” but she had a trick to help her with hard words.
“I sort of fidget a lot to calm myself down,” she said. “I’m nervous and just fidgeting helps me calm down and think about the word.”
Along with shaking her hands as she recited letters, Alex said a steady diet of spelling practice and reading helped her in the competition.
“I’ve read enough to have a very large vocabulary,” she said.
The three finalists will represent their schools at the Tri-County (Richland, Crawford, and Morrow counties) Spelling Bee at the Mid-Ohio Education Service Center, Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m.
“I’m very proud to not be recognized for sports, but also athletics,” said Alli, an eighth grader at Colonel Crawford Intermediate School.
Alex felt similarly.
“I really feel proud of this,” Alex said. “I really like being able to do this spelling thing because English is one of my favorite subjects.”
The Top 12 spellers from the night will get to join the three finalists at the next Bee.
They are Shyanne Current, a seventh grader at Crestline Middle School, Malia Posey, a fifth grader of Bucyrus Elementary School, Max Phillips, an eighth grade student at St. Bernard Middle School, Olivia Corwin, a seventh grade student at Crestline Middle School, Chloe Sargent, an eight grade student at St. Bernard Middle School, Elizabeth Wilson, a fourth grade student at Bycyrus Elementary School, Brock Ritzhaupt, an eighth grade student at Colonel Crawford Middle School, Makayla Crocket, a fourth grade student at Galion Elementary School and Ben Rinehart, a fifth grade student at Galion Elementary School.
