MANSFIELD – Seventh-grader Maggie Sheridan was declared the winner of the Richland County Spelling Bee on Thursday.
Sheridan won after correctly spelling the word “meliorate,” meaning “to make or become better or more satisfactory.” It was hard to meliorate any more on her day Thursday.
“I’m still kind of in shock,” she said after her victory. “That was just totally unexpected for me, it was really a great experience.”
Sheridan won Thursday’s bee ahead of more than 70 other spellers from around the county, including Crestview, Lucas, Madison, Mansfield, Ontario and Shelby. There were seven other spellers from Lexington, including her sister Katie Sheridan who was eliminated in the second round.
In fact, Katie and Maggie are two-thirds of triplet sisters that attend Lexington Junior High. Their father Mark Sheridan said both Katie and Maggie have been preparing for the bee at home and in school.
“We had high hopes for them, and of course we were disappointed for Katie but sometimes you get a hard word and you go out on that,” Mark Sheridan said. “Maggie blew us away again spelling words that I wasn’t even able to spell in my seat.”
The bee was hosted at Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center on Thursday. It was sponsored by both Mid-Ohio and the Mansfield News Journal.
Mid-Ohio’s education consultant Steve Brown was the pronouncer for Maggie Sheridan’s winning word of “meliorate.”
“I wasn’t completely sure about it, but I knew it had an opposite, ‘ameliorate,'” Maggie said. “So I was pretty sure then that was how you spelled it. I gave it my best guess and it paid off.”
This isn’t the first spelling bee win for Maggie Sheridan. In 2016, she was named the winner of the Tri-County Spelling Bee, where she’ll have a chance to retain her title on Thursday, Feb. 9 again at Mid-Ohio.
For Mark Sheridan, his daughter’s spelling bee record gave him a bit of confidence ahead of Thursday’s win.
“I’m not shocked, but I’m pleasantly surprised,” he said. “We’re very proud of all our girls.”
For Maggie Sheridan, lots of practice and a bit of self-confidence propelled her to victory on Thursday.
“Although, I did get the word ‘nervous,'” she added with a laugh.
