MANSFIELD, Ohio – It’s safe to say Carmen DeVito is an “inveterate” speller.
That’s the word the seventh grade student from Shelby spelled correctly in order to win the Richland County Spelling Bee on Thursday morning. The definition of “inveterate” is having a particular habit, activity or interest that is long-established and unlikely to change.
This is the second major spelling win for 12-year-old, who won the Tri-County Spelling Bee in 2015 after placing among the top 12 spellers in the Richland County bee.
“She’s always reading, reading, reading,” said DeVito’s mother Kelly Schroeder. “I think that’s how she knows all those spellings.”
DeVito said she does attend spelling practice after school at Shelby Middle School and practices with her grandma, who was in the audience on Thursday. But she does so grudgingly.
“I don’t like to practice,” DeVito said.
She was one of seven students from Shelby City Schools to participate in the Richland County Spelling Bee, hosted at the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center. The bee is sponsored by the Mansfield News Journal, who donated the trophies and certificates provided to the spellers.
A total of 15 districts from across the county were represented on Thursday, with 67 students from grades four through eight.
The spelling bee went nine rounds before DeVito earned the title. Eighth grader Myra Hatzer, of Lexington Local Schools, was runner-up.
Words spelled incorrectly throughout the rounds included dromedary, astrophysicist, antecedent and diurnal.
Though a spelling bee veteran by now, DeVito said she was “dying” of nervousness throughout the bee.
“I think people in the audience are just as nervous,” Schroeder said. “I was tapping my foot the whole time.”
The relief on DeVito’s face after correctly spelling “inveterate” was obvious. And as for what word ran through her mind at that moment?
“Hallelujah!” she said.
The top 12 spellers from this year’s Richland County Spelling Bee, including DeVito and Hatzer, will advance to the Tri-County Spelling Bee on Feb. 11. Spellers from Crawford, Richland and Morrow counties will be invited to participate.
