Cuylee Troyer withstands the pressure to win bee
Nathaniel Coen was poised to take home the trophy, but an errant “s” spelled the end for the WHMS spelling bee runner-up.
The grand finale of the annual West Holmes Middle School spelling bee was a terrific example of the wide range of emotions that can accompany any kind of competition.
As ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” once put it, it was “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” for two of the middle school competitors.
Sixth-grader Cuylee Troyer withstood the pressure of standing up on stage in front of her classmates, overcame her own trepidations and emerged as the victor during the Friday, Jan. 19 competition held in the West Holmes Middle School auditorium.
The competition began with nine students who had qualified through a written testing period; however, one of them was absent, Brianna Parks unable to attend due to vacation.
Parks would have been there for the originally scheduled event, which was supposed to take place the Friday prior to the bee, but foul weather caused the cancellation of school. Thus the bee was pushed back one week.
The other eight competitors — which included eighth-graders Elyssa Sutton, Ashley Tate, Nathaniel Coen and Julia Miller; seventh-grader Aiden Piatt; and six-graders Gus Warner, Sienna Snow and Troyer — took center stage and began their quest to spell their way to the championship.
One by one the contest grew smaller as words like intersect, balloonist, agog and sparsely tripped up several of the competitors. Nerves, as much as not knowing those words, may have been the main culprit.
In the end, as round 10 approached, only Troyer and Coen were left standing, and they were ready to go to great lengths to win. However, great lengths lasted just one round when Coen misfired on a word he absolutely knew.
That word was testament, but for whatever reason he blurted out the letter “s” and quickly realized his misstep. However, once a letter is said in a spelling bee, it can’t be recanted, so he knew what his fate would be a millisecond after spouting out the incorrect letter.
“It came out instantaneously, and I knew it was over,” Coen said. “It was humiliating. I nearly knocked myself out on the spot.”
That opened the door for one of the younger contestants to step up, and Troyer did just that. She correctly spelled “hoarsely” before properly spelling “disengage.”
As soon as she uttered the final letter of her winning word, Troyer’s hands flew to her mouth in total disbelief. Her first inclination was to think of the worst possible scenario rather than the excitement of what might happen if she succeeded.
“My first thought was that I was going to fail and miss a word,” Troyer said of her final two offerings. “I just couldn’t believe it.”
Troyer said she studies at length with her sister, who would say the word, and Troyer would spell it for her. When she ran across a word she struggled with, she would write it down multiple times.
“I feel a lot more comfortable actually writing the words down on paper,” Troyer said. “I think that is why doing that helped me learn the harder words. I knew what I was doing with all of my words, but it’s so much easier with pencil and paper, and I was definitely nervous.”
Coen’s disappointment with his error was magnified because he is such a language buff. He said he will oftentimes stay up past midnight learning Latin, German and other languages.
“I think reading is one of the best things you could ever do to improve your learning,” Coen said. “Whether you’re learning a new language, a new vocabulary or learning to spell, reading is one of the best things you can do. It is generally a cure-all.”
Spelling bee coordinator Carla Lance, who teaches English at WHMS, said reading is by far the best way to enhance learning skills. However, she said in today’s world of texting, emojis and sharing in shorthand, there is less dedication to learning how to spell correctly.
“Kids today use the computer so much rather than writing and tend to rely on spell-check,” Lance said. “I truly think that kids who read today have such a built-in advantage.”
She went on to say this particular group of students was a great group of youngsters who did a nice job of dedicating themselves to studying for the bee. She said the extra week of studying from the cancellation may have helped.
Troyer will now advance to the local regional held at GlenOak High School on March 3, where she will compete with other area champions for the right to advance to state.
“I was nervous enough today,” Troyer said. “That should be interesting.”
If nothing else, each participant emerged a winner because they were all invited to partake in a pizza party and movie night, where they will watch the beloved movie, “Akeela and the Spelling Bee.”
Lance, Nina Lansing and Josh Wengerd served as judges for the event, Wengerd serving as the pronouncer.