Allen County students took the stage at the Rhinehart Music Center Thursday to show off their spelling prowess by competing in the county-wide spelling bee.
"Beaumontage", a word of unknown origin with a deceptive French spelling, was the championship word at Thursday’s Allen County Spelling Bee. It means a composition used by artisans to fill and conceal holes or cracks in wood or metal.
After eight rounds and a bonus tie-breaker for runner up, Achyut Ethiraj came out on top.
Ethiraj is a fourth-grader at Cedar Canyon Elementary School. This was his first year participating in the bee.
“I studied hard so I just think ‘I might win’ but I was not sure," Ethiraj said. "But it turned out I won.”
Nearly 50 students from elementary schools around the county took the stage to battle it out for top speller. The contest began with a practice round of short, common words. Once the real competition began, the words became longer and harder to pronounce.
Ethiraj said he had to come up with a method for studying for the bee, but that his dad was able to help him find resources.
After a tie-breaker, fifth grader Camelia Tran from Covington Elementary was the bee’s runner up.
In early March, Ethiraj will represent Allen County in the Regional Spelling Bee.
