By James Massara
BUCYRUS – The Crawford County Spelling Bee has a champion for 2018.
Colonel Crawford seventh-grade student Luke Biederman claimed victory in the 15th round of the competition. The word “intrepid” was what he spelled correctly to win.
After the fifth round, just Biederman and Wynford sixth-grade student Drew Johnson remained. The two went toe-to-toe for the next nine rounds before Johnson missed the spelling of “pittance.”
During the back-and-forth, Johnson said he kept thinking that whoever was going to win was probably going to get a cool prize.
After spelling the word incorrectly, Johnson said he thought Biederman would spell his next word correctly. Even so, Johnson knew he was moving on to the next round and would need to prepare.
“I’ll probably do a little bit of different studying,” Johnson said. “But, I’ll probably study a little bit of the same words.”
Though Johnson seemed convinced Biederman would spell his word correctly, Biederman said there were times, especially in the early stages of the championship round, when he was unsure.
Johnson said he used the tactic of thinking of how he would write it first and then try to verbally spell it.
The two spellers took two different approaches to using the lifelines offered during the competition, such as the place of origin of the word and definitions.
“I just wanted to use it to have more time to think,” Johnson said about asking the country of origin.
Meanwhile, Biederman thought he would at least learn the word if he did not think he knew it.
“I kept asking for definitions, because I was interested in what they meant,” Biederman said.
He said he’s going to continue his study habits of with a list of words his teacher gave him as well as find more challenging lists as he prepares for the next round.
“I’m nervous, but excited,” Biederman said.
Biederman said the biggest thing he learned at the local level was to go with the first gut feeling and stick to it.
After the champion was crowned, seven students participated in a spell-off round to claim the 12th and final spot to qualify for the next round of competition. After four spell-off rounds, Wynford seventh-grade student Gwen Ruth claimed the final spot.
The following students are those who qualified for the next round of competition:
Morgan Shipman, 7th grade, Colonel Crawford
Luke Biederman, 7th grade, Colonel Crawford
Isis Wagner, 8th grade, Buckeye Central
Drew Johnson, 6th grade, Wynford
Rosalyn Johnson, 8th grade, Bucyrus
Samantha Weithman, 8th grade, St. Bernard
Owen Fruth, 8th grade, Wynford
Jayleen Spaulding, 7th grade, Buckeye Central
Emily Schuster, 4th grade, Wynford
Ashley Davis, 8th grade, Bucyrus
Adam Geiger, 7th grade, Galion
Gwen Ruth, 7th grade, Wynford.
The Tri-County Spelling Bee, which includes Crawford, Morrow and Richland counties, is Feb. 8 at the Mid-Ohio Educational Services Center.