ILMS student wins county contest, Riverside pupil named runner-up
Indian Lake Middle School seventh-grader Chazlance Moore rose to the challenge of correctly spelling an item fitting to spelling bee royalty — “scepter” — to claim his title of 2021 Logan County Spelling Bee champ Thursday night at the Indian Lake High School auditorium.
He and runner-up contestant Kara Klingler from Riverside Elementary School went head-to-head for the final four rounds at the event hosted by the Midwest Regional Educational Service Center featuring a total of 12 of the top spellers from each of the county school buildings for grades 1-8.
In the final rounds, the top two spellers breezed through “substantial” words like “protruding” and “stalagmite.” They each were tripped up by their words in round 15, the tough “traitorous” and “condominium.”
Then in round 16, Kara’s word, “psychiatrist,” proved a little tricky for her, and Chazlance was able to correctly spell “irreversible” in that round to turn around the competition in his favor.
Both the winner and runner-up said they have been studying frequently ever since receiving the word list about a month ago, and took full advantage of their recent Christmas break to have extra time to study. They also each credited their mothers for quizzing them on a nightly basis.
“My mom helped me a lot,” said Chazlance, a son of Lany and Charles Moore. “She’d read the word out loud and I’d spell it. She would star the ones I had trouble with and we’d come back to those the next time.”
“My mom and I studied quite a bit toward the end of Christmas break, and have been cramming every single night recently,” said Kara, a sixth-grader and returning Logan County Spelling Bee contestant who participated in the contest two years ago. She is a daughter of Steve and Donna Klingler and said she also participates in basketball, student council, gymnastics, choir and band and is working on a sewing project for 4-H.
Chazlance said his favorite school subjects include language arts and pre-algebra, and after high school, he would like to attend college to study architecture and engineering.
Earlier in the evening as the spelling bee commenced, the contestants fared well through the first two rounds. Then the word “slimy” slipped up one competitor in round three and another was unsettled by “rely” in round six.
The remaining pupils didn’t wince at “clatter,” “eddy,” “slate” or “whimper” in rounds seven and eight, and Benjamin Logan Middle School fifth-grader Autumn Cline branched out by correctly spelling “bough,” a tricky homonym of “bow.”
Considering the stiff competition, pronouncer Erica Baer said she found herself continuing further down the list to find more challenging words for the skilled spellers. In rounds nine, 10 and 11, five students dropped out after facing “pedestrian,” “Scandinavia,” “feta” and “drowsy.”
The contest was whittled down to five students by round 12. In addition to Chazlance and Kara, those in the top five included Autumn and Bellefontaine Middle School eighth-grader Graham Lotts and sixth-grader Mackenzie Stripe.
Round 12, however, proved a difficult “hurdle” and the contest was condensed to the final two contestants after trouble with “scallion” and “congratulate.”
Fellow competitors at this year’s spelling bee included Bellefontaine Intermediate School fifth-graders Sloan Stolly and Bryant Carter; Indian Lake Middle School eighth-grader Czar Dickson; Benjamin Logan Middle School sixth-grader Wyatt Gordon; and Riverside Middle School eighth-graders Abbigale Scherer and Thomas Burden; and Riverside Elementary fifth-grader Brody Orsborne.
The winners from each school also will take an online test in January in attempt to qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition.