MANSFIELD – Two sisters from Lexington Middle School swept the Tri-County Spelling Bee Thursday evening at the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center.
For the third consecutive year, Maggie Sheridan won the spelling bee, but before taking the title, Sheridan had to out-spell one of her triplet sisters Katie Sheridan, who came in second place.
“We’re very proud of our girls,” said their father, Mark Sheridan. “They’ve worked very hard for this.”
The spelling bee started with more than 30 contestants from Richland, Crawford and Morrow Counties, but after five rounds, the Sheridans were the only contestants left. They both spelled their next words correctly, but in the seventh round, Katie misspelled “duodenum,” referring to the first part of the small intestine.
Maggie then won the competition with the word “Pompeii.”
“I didn’t know what to expect. I know by now, it’s luck of the draw, so I just went with the flow,” Maggie said.
She has participated in spelling bees for four years now and has now won the Tri-County Spelling Bee three times. Maggie also won the Richland County Spelling bee earlier this year and in 2017, when she continued to win the regional bee and placed 23rd out of 291 contestants in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
To compete on a national level again, most contestants need to win the regional competition. This is Maggie’s goal, but even if she doesn’t win, there’s still a chance she’ll get to go. She has received an invitation to apply for a wild card seat. These are ultimately awarded with preference to someone who has previously competed and is running out of time to compete. This is the last year the Sheridans are eligible.
“We’ll just have to see how the regional plays out, if I need that invitation or not,” Maggie said.
She prepares for spelling bees with a computer program from Hexco, which provides audio of “national level words” and information like the word’s origin, alternative pronunciations and more.
Her sister Katie uses lists that her advisors have collected from previous county and tri-county spelling bees. She has competed in spelling bees for the past three years. During her first year, Katie came in third place at the Tri-County Bee, but didn’t make it past the county competition last year.
She came in fourth place at January’s county bee and expressed a desire to come in second place at the tri-county one.
But she almost didn’t make it that far. After asking for the pronunciation of “lugubrious,” several times, Katie misspelled the word.
“I knew the word,” her sister, Maggie said. “I knew the way she (the pronouncer) pronounced it first was right, but then she repeatedly pronounced it incorrectly, and it was affecting (Katie’s) ability to spell the word, and I felt the need to speak up.”
As Katie walked away from the microphone, Maggie chimed in, and Katie was given a different word to spell. This one, she spelled correctly.
“It doesn’t make a difference that it was my sister, if it was anybody else I would’ve done the same,” Maggie said.
Outside of spelling bees, Maggie and Katie both play the violin and partake in Lexington Middle School’s Academic Challenge Team, which has won its past four meets. Katie also plays the piano.
Maggie will compete next on the regional level. Katie will not compete in that bee, as only one student can move on.
