021312 Spelling success

  • By Sharon Haught
  • February 6, 2012
  • 337
                        
Summary: It took over 90 minutes and hundreds of words but one Wayne County student emerged as champion of the 56th Annual Wayne County Spelling Bee. “Shrapnel. S-h-r-a-p-n-e-l. Shrapnel.” With those words Edgewood Middle School seventh grader Nathaniel Cornelius took the championship of the 56th annual Wayne County Spelling Bee on Jan. 30 at the Wooster High School Performing Arts Center. Claiming his title as the best speller in the county wasn’t easy. Cornelius was up against 39 other sixth through eighth grade students from public and private schools throughout Wayne County all vying for the coveted top spot and a berth to the regional spelling bee in Akron in March. In all it took 18 rounds, hundreds of words and over 90 minutes of tense competition to crown a county champion. Throughout the evening spellers stepped up to the microphone to take on words that many adults in the audience would have been hard pressed to spell correctly such as mystique, graupel, kohlrabi and rhetoric. By the end of the first round eight of the 40 competitors, all of whom were the spelling champions of their schools, had already been eliminated and another eight fell in the second round. By the time pronouncer was Andrew Lewellen, a Gifted and Talented Teacher for the Tri-County Educational Service Center, moved to words on the approved spelling bee list in the intermediate category in round three six more competitors fell. By the end of the fourth round another nine competitors were out of contention leaving just nine students to fight it out for the eight berths to the regional competition. As the fifth round of competition came to a close only the top four competitors – Cornelius, Tonya Singer of Apple Creek Elementary School, Adriana Hershberger of Mt. Eaton Elementary School and Patrick Saline of Edgewood Middle School - were left to compete for the championship. When Hershberger and Saline were eliminated from the hunt for the title, Cornelius and Singer dueled for ten more rounds, going back and forth spelling words correctly and incorrectly. It wasn’t until the 18th round when Cornelius spelled “analysis” correctly and Singer missed the word “cordovan” that Cornelius spelled “shrapnel” correctly to take home the crown. Joining Cornelius, Singer, Hershberger and Saline at the regional spelling bee to compete for the opportunity to represent Ohio in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. in May are Jared Cassarly of Edgewood Middle School, Scott Perkins of Central Christian Middle School, Brayden Porter of Chippewa Middle School and Hannah Burns of Triway Junior High School. The Wayne County Spelling Bee is sponsored by the Tri-County Educational Service Center and organized by Tri-County Educational Service Center Gifted and Talented Coordinator Diane Pool and Administrative Assistant Jamie Imhoff. The panel of three judges charged with monitoring the event included Dr. Julia Beyeler, Director Emeritus of Learning Support Services for the University of Akron Wayne College, Lynn Moomaw, Director of Operations and Adult Education for the Wayne County Schools Career Center and Lance White, Managing Editor of the Daily Record. The Wayne County Spelling Bee is one of dozens of educational and fine arts programs offered by the Tri-County Educational Service Center and designed to supplement the educational programs offered by local schools districts throughout Wayne, Holmes and Ashland counties. In addition to fine arts offerings including the Solo and Ensemble Festival, student art exhibits and the Wayne County High School Play Festival, the organization also offers a series of educational opportunities including Enrichment Academy for students in grades three through eight, Western Field Studies and Marine Biology experiences for high school students and the Young Authors Conference for students in third through eighth grade. For more information on these and other services offered by the Tri-County Educational Service Center log on to www.tricountyesc.org.


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