Graham Lotts, son of Tina and Shane Lotts and Bellefontaine Middle School seventh grader, kept the Logan County Spelling Bee championship title in the family with his first-place win Friday evening.
Graham won the bee with the correct spelling of the word “radium.”
He follows in his 15-year-old brother Grant’s footsteps who has three bee championships under his belt.
Grant said he had practically no words for his brother’s feat.
“It’s amazing what he did,” Grant said.
“I feel pretty excited,” Graham said. “All that hard work has paid off.”
Graham said he took his studying process step-by-step by studying the first page of the list and working his way to the last.
“It took a lot of time to pull it off,” he said.
Graham said his whole family helped him study — especially his brother Grant and his mother Tina.
“(Grant) has years of experience,” Graham said proudly.
His main study partners were also his source of inspiration.
“My mom wanted me to do it and said if he (Grant) can be good at it, I can be good at it, too,” Graham said.
Tina Lotts said she was thrilled for her sons’ successes in the bee.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “I studied with (Graham) a lot. We went through the words and if he didn’t get it right we just kept going over it and I would write it really big and circle the word he missed and we went over and over it until he got it in his head.”
Graham competed through more than 16 grueling rounds, ending up in the finals with Theo Reminder, son of Betsy Woodruff and Jonathan Reminder and Bellefontaine Middle School eighth grader, who took second place.
“It was a pretty hard win and pretty lucky that both me and Theo are both from Bellefontaine Middle School and made first and second place,” Graham said.
Although he wasn’t tasked with spelling it during Friday’s bee, Graham said his most difficult to spell word will always be “Mississippi.”
Graham said he hopes to return next year to compete once again.
Outside of spelling, Graham competes in travel soccer and backyard football and basketball.
Erica Baer, Midwest Regional Educational Service Center student achievement director, said spelling bees are important because they emphasize taking on a challenge, preparation in studying and reinforce that spelling is important.
“It’s really important academically for students to be able to compete in that level against peers from all around the county,” said Karen Sorreles, Midwest Regional Educational Service Center youth development liaison.
And a total of 12 students in grades 3 through 8 from throughout the county in Bellefontaine City, Indian Lake, Riverside and Benjamin Logan Local schools competed in Friday’s bee at Benjamin Logan High School.
All 12 spellers remained in competition for the first three solid rounds, correctly spelling words including “holler,” “gallop,” “manger” and “special.”
The fourth took its first speller, leaving 11 who went another round of the competition with no elimination.
After the sixth round, 10 spellers remained who also went another entire round with no elimination.
Four spellers fell victim to the eighth round, leaving six students in its wake who survived the ninth round with another round of no elimination.
The next three rounds picked off four more spellers, leaving Theo and Graham who competed several rounds in which they either both misspelled their words or both spelled their words correctly, bringing them back up to spell again.
The remainder of the competitors are listed as follows: Bellefontaine Intermediate School fifth graders Caleb Shreve and Mackenzie Stripe; Indian Lake Middle School seventh grader Jacob Freyhof and sixth grader Xavier Johnson; Benjamin Logan Middle School eighth grader Aidan Dials and seventh grader Courtney Fansler; Riverside Middle School eighth graders Addison and Jordan Holycross; and Riverside Elementary School third grader Levi Mcguire and sixth grader Grady Jenkins.