The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
TRI-COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Ashtabula winner advances to national bee
Three students gathered in Kirtland on March 6 — coming from Geauga, Lake and Ashtabula County — to compete for a chance to go to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.
Participants were Matthew Dufour, a sixth-grader from Erie Intermediate School, Riley Matchinga, an eighth-grader from Cardinal Middle School, and Yuvaraj (Raj) Vagula, a seventh-grader from LaMuth Middle School. Each student was the winner of their respected county bee.
After 63 rounds of intense tri-county competition, Matthew spelled “Gothamite” correctly, cinching a first-place finish and punching himself a ticket to the National Spelling Bee in May.
“This is amazing,” Matthew said. “I love the spelling bee (and) this was just an amazing experience. I’ll never forget it.”
This was Matthew’s third year at the Tri-County Spelling Bee. He won last year’s competition and also participated the year before that. At last year’s national bee, Matthew said that he placed around 240th among 500 spellers.
“I’m going to try to get higher (this year),” Matthew said. “I’m going to make it at least to the top 100 this time if I can. I think I can.”
During the tri-county bee, Raj and Matthew competed back and forth for almost 60 rounds as the words they spelled grew more and more difficult. A new list of words was utilized for the last three rounds, a list that the students weren’t able to study.
Mary Balmford, Lake County Educational Service Center’s project administrator, commented at one point that the panel was afraid they would run out of words.
Matthew said that his family helps him study by coming up with a list of words he struggles with in order for him to study and familiarize himself with them. During competition, he likes to spell words in his head before spelling them out loud to the judges.
He mentioned that two years ago, he missed the word “collage” because he tried to spell too quickly.
“So now I spell it to myself
and repeat it back very slowly so I don’t actually put in a letter that I don’t want to,” he said.
Matthew also said he prays frequently to help keep calm and ask for God’s help.
Concerning the win, he said, “I couldn’t have done it without God or my family.”
His parents, Danielle and Mike Dufour, said that they were proud of their son. Mike mentioned that the tough competition probably made Matthew
particularly excited about winning this year.
“With this being his third year, he kind of has this system down in place that works for him,” Danielle said. “And he has a photographic memory, so it comes pretty easy to him. So it’s just a matter of constant quizzing; keeping it fresh in his mind.”
“We’ve done a lot of spelling bees,” Mike added, when talking about study habits. “So basically, however (Matthew) wants to do it, we’ll do it.”
To prepare for the national bee, Matthew mentioned that he plans to study more word origins.
“I can’t study the whole dictionary,” Matthew said. “So I’m going to try my best to learn origins and roots, mainly. And then I’m going to study the list of — I think it’s 400 words — that they do for the test.”
The Scripps National Spelling Bee preliminary test is scheduled for May 27, with the finals beginning May 30.