Several “firsts” were celebrated at the 2023 Logan County Spelling Bee Tuesday night, Jan. 17, with the Holland Theatre serving as the new venue for the annual contest.
The competition also concluded with a two-round, runner-up spell-off to break a previous tie for the second-place spot, which is believed to be the first time that has occurred in county spelling bee history, the judges said.
Bellefontaine Middle School seventh-grader Sloan Stolly captured the 2023 spelling bee champion title after 15 rounds, by correctly spelling “unseemly” and then continuing by spelling her championship word “engagement.”
Also in round 15, the other two top spellers — fellow BMS seventh-grader Caden Yoder and Bellefontaine Intermediate School fifth-grader Eva Wilson — misspelled their words, “sleuthing” and “membrane,” initially leaving them tied for that runner-up spot.
So the judges conferred and consulted their rule books for a few minutes, and then emcee Erica Baer announced the spell-off between those two contestants.
Caden and Eva navigated their first round of words “emblem” and “amenities.” Eva was tripped up by her second word, and Caden went on to correctly spell “undine” as his runner-up championship word.
The extra surprise of this new twist to the spelling bee heightened the nerves of the competitors.
“I was extremely nervous during those rounds, but somehow I pulled it off,” Caden, a son of Colin and Carrie Yoder, said after the spelling bee. “I’m really happy with how everything went.”
Sloan said this was her second appearance at the Logan County Spelling Bee, after qualifying for the event two years ago as a fifth-grader.
“I didn’t go real far that time,” the daughter of Josh and Whitney Stolly recalled. “I’m so excited for the spelling bee win and hope to come back next year as an eighth-grader, too.”
Both Caden and Sloan said they spent a lot of time studying their spelling lists in recent weeks, including over their Christmas break, and then had their mothers quiz them prior to the contest on the big stage.
The county bee, hosted by the Midwest Regional Educational Service Center, features all of the top two spellers from the county school districts, Bellefontaine City, Indian Lake, Riverside and Benjamin Logan, in grades five through eight.
The 11 contestants breezed through the first three rounds without a hitch, and then “orca” proved a whale of trouble for one speller in round four, and “fly-bys” — a flight past a point, especially the close approach of a spacecraft to a planet or moon for observation — didn’t fly so well for another student in round five.
Pupils showed their “feisty” spirits and spelling prowess in the next several rounds, correctly spelling “Andean,” “bovines,” “geopolitics,” “brooding” and “pistons.”
“Defunct” put a stop to one contestant’s time in the bee in round six, and “churned” also got another student a little twisted up that round.
Seven spellers were left in round seven, one of whom did not experience “exhilaration” with her word and another pupil who dropped out after “dissolute.”
The top five spellers left in round eight also included Benjamin Logan Middle School eighth-grader Holly Coaty and Indian Lake Middle School eighth-grader Grace Johnson. Those pupils hung on through several challenging rounds, successfully making their way through “maneuverable,” “forsooth,” “blasphemous” and “Zimbabwe.”
In round 12, Grace and others in the audience were a bit puzzled by her word, a specialty musical instrument, which ended her time in the contest. Then “kirpan” proved to be a dagger for Holly in the next round.
Contestants in the spelling bee also included: Bellefontaine Intermediate fifth-grader William Campbell; Benjamin Logan Middle School seventh-grader Autumn Cline; Indian Lake Middle School fifth-grader Starr Leonhart; Riverside Elementary School sixth-grader Emma Blair and fifth-grader Shailyn Giles; and Riverside Middle School seventh-grader Chance Magoto.
In addition, Riverside Middle School seventh-graders Clara McGill qualified for the county bee, but was absent for the contest.