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Spellers go round and round to decide winner
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Spelling Bee winner
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Lauren Ritz of Willow Creek earning Center is the 2011 Vindicator Spelling Bee champ.
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The Vindicator’s 78th Regional Spelling Bee is one for the record books.
It took 69 rounds and nearly five hours Saturday for the grand champion to be
declared. In the end, Lauren
Ritz, 13, of New Castle, Pa., a seventh-grader at Willow Creek Learning Center in
Poland, was named champion in the event that started with 68 competitors in the Chestnut Room in Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University. Lauren is the daughter of Lisa and Stephen Ritz.
“I just practiced,” Lauren said of her strategy leading up to the competition. She was the runner-up in the 2010 bee.
Lauren wins an expense-paid trip for her and a parent to Washington, D.C., during the 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee Week, May 29-June 4. The trip is underwritten by The Vindicator.
She plans to continue to practice for the national event.
Max Lee, 11, a sixth-grader
at Canfield Village Middle School and the son of Tac and Linglan Lee, is the runner-up.
Megan Winters, 12, a West Branch Middle School
seventh-grader, placed third. She is the daughter of Edwin and Mary Winters.
After Megan misspelled kasha in Round 11, it was a spell-off between Lauren
and Max for rounds 12 through 69. The word list for the bee defines kasha as “a mush made from coarse cracked buckwheat, barley, millet or wheat.”
The Rev. Dr. Lewis Macklin, pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist, and a longtime spelling-bee judge, said he doesn’t recall a bee that’s lasted so many rounds.
“This was a competition,” he said.
Nena Perkins of The Vindicator, coordinator of the bee, agreed.
“I think we may have a record,” she said.
Last year, it took 235 words for a winner to be declared. This year, it was 286 words.
In Round 27, it looked like Lauren would be the winner when Max misspelled mesmerize. Lauren correctly spelled the word and then was asked to spell poignant.
After a review by the judges, it was determined that she had misspelled poignant, and the contest continued for several more rounds.
In Round 68, Max misspelled bobolink, “a common American bird noted for its rollicking musical song,” according to the definition provided in the word list. Lauren correctly spelled perilous for the win.
Perilous means “full of, attended with or involving danger.”
Lauren credited her family for her victory.
“My family has been so supportive, and they’ve helped me practice all the way,” Lauren said.