Centerville middle schooler wins Regional Spelling Bee, advances to D.C.
Two local students finished in the top 3 at the Regional Spelling Bee at Wright State University on Wednesday night.
The event was won by Aurora Spisak, a seventh-grader at Watts Middle School in Centerville, who smiled as she held the big trophy, but a day later she said winning still felt “kind of not real.”
The competition involved 47 spellers from across the Dayton region and lasted 20 rounds, according to orga- nizers at Wright State.
Spisak said all of the spell- ers in the competition were “terrific.”
The other two winners included second-place fin- isher William Landon, 12, from Cedarville, and thirdplace finisher Matthew Comer, 11, of Ridgewood School, a private school in Springfield.
Spisak, 13, said she has always been interested in literature and spelling, and had prepared for the com- petition since January, when she won her school’s spell- ing bee.
She’ll continue preparing through May, because Spi- sak now advances to compete in the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee this summer near Washington, D.C. The semifinal round is
May 29 and the final round is May 30. The final round will be televised on the ION network.
“I’m excited for the thrill of being in a national com- petition,” Spisak said.
Her winning word was Orinoco, the name of one of South America’s longest rivers.
This was the first time the regional spelling bee had been held in-person since 2019, and the first time Wright State had ever hosted.
“Wright State is thrilled to be hosting the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee and to support our region’s learners in their love of language and admirable depth of knowl- edge,” WSU President Sue Edwards said.
The regional spelling bee included students from grades 4-8. Spellers studied “Words of the Champions,” the 4,000-word list provided by the Scripps National Spell- ing Bee, to prepare for the competition.
In addition to qualifying for the national competition, Spisak also wins these prizes:
The Samuel Louis Sugar- man Award, a 2024 United States Mint Proof Set pro- vided by Jay Sugarman, chair and CEO of istar Financial.
Britannica Online Pre- mium, a one-year subscription to the premier online resource from Encyclopedia Britannica.
Merriam-webster Unabridged Online, a oneyear subscription to the official word source for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Epic Family, a one-year subscription to the world’s largest digital library for children with access to more than 40,000 books, audiobooks and videos.
Tynker, a one-year subscription to a leading K–12 creative coding platform plus eight live one-on-one online coding classes.