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Step by step, 14-year-old spells her way to the top
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Spelling Bee 2008 contestants
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Vindicator Spelling Bee 2008
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By Harold Gwin
This year’s final rounds played out just like last year, except for the ending.
YOUNGSTOWN — For some, they say the third time’s the charm.
For Hannah Stang Gerdes, it’s the fourth time.
Hannah, 14, daughter of Bob and Tena Gerdes of Hubbard, is the grand champion of The Vindicator’s 75th annual Regional Spelling Bee, taking the title at Saturday’s event in Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.
It was her fourth appearance at the bee. She was there in 2003, finished third two years ago and second last year, losing the 2007 event to John Umble.
The final 10 rounds of this year’s contest were almost a replay of last year, with Hannah and John going head-to-head as the last two spellers standing.
The only difference was the ending.
This time, it was John, a seventh-grader from Willow Creek Learning Center, who stumbled on a word and Hannah who moved on to victory. Julia Clair Miglets, a sixth-grader from Springfield Intermediate School, finished third.
It was an unanticipated pronunciation of the word alcazar that tripped him up, John said.
Hannah, who had to spell the word correctly after John missed it in the 25th round of the bee and then go on to spell another word — durwan — correctly to claim the title of grand champion, said she wasn’t familiar with the pronunciation either but was able to come up with the correct spelling.
“I’m so excited,” she said as she posed with a trophy nearly as tall as she.
“I can’t believe it. I get to go to Washington,” she said.
As the grand champion, Hannah advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition at the end of May. The Vindicator will pick up the tab for her and one of her parents to make the trip, which will include sightseeing as part of the experience.
She said her past experiences of being a spelling bee participant probably helped her. She was familiar with the rules and routine and only had to concentrate on her spelling, she said.
Hannah said she knew she was in for a real challenge when it came down to just her and John on stage.
“I knew he was a good speller. I knew it would go on for a few rounds,” she said.
“She deserved to win,” John said, offering his admiration for how Hannah handled the odd pronunciation of alcazar.
“I studied really hard,” Hannah said, explaining that she secured word lists from Scripps and created her own spelling binder from which to study.
Her father worked with her to hone her skills, she said.
“We spent about a half-hour most nights going over words,” Bob Gerdes said. That changed over the past 10 days or so, when the study sessions expanded to an hour or more, he said.
Pronunciations can be tricky, he said, pointing out that some words on the advanced list aren’t even found in most dictionaries, so they had to guess at how some of them are pronounced.
“Spelling bee is always fun,” said Tena Gerdes, who credits her husband with much of Hannah’s success.
“Her dad is the one. He’s the speller. He works with her,” she said.
Hannah, who represented The Montessori School of the Mahoning Valley Inc. as its champion in both 2003 and 2006, and was a pupil at St. Patrick School in Hubbard last year when she finished second in The Vindicator bee. She is being home-schooled this year as an eighth-grader and plans to attend Ursuline High School this fall.
In addition to spelling, her interests include cross country running, the piano, ballet and baton twirling. She also enjoys participating in the national MathCounts competition and enjoys reading.
gwin@vindy.com