By round 12 of the Journal Gazette’s Regional Spelling Bee this weekend, there were only two spellers left in the competition - but it went on for another 15 rounds.
Two elementary schoolers went back and forth on Saturday, spelling and misspelling words, until the final champion emerged.
Jude Hoeffel from Garrett Middle School finally clinched the title with the word: Ferrier.
He says he’s always felt like a natural speller and that’s what led him to the bee.
“So, when I was in like first and second grade and stuff, they would always have, you know, spelling tests and I would always just not need to study or anything. So, yeah, I was always just really good at spelling and that’s what got me into it.”
At the sixth round, the bee veered from the list that contestants had been given to study into words from the dictionary. Spellers were faced with words such as ‘wrought’ ‘Indonesia’ and ‘lomilomi’.
It was ‘galoshes’ that took out Allen County’s representative in the sixth round.
With his win, Hoeffel will travel to Washington D.C. later this year to compete in the 93rd Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.
