West G student wins spelling bee

West G student wins Tri-County Spelling Bee

West Geauga Middle School student Parker Pacifico is getting his bags packed for a trip to Washington, D.C., to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the end of May.

This comes after Parker’s victory at the Tri-County Spelling Bee held at the Auburn Technical Learning Center on March 10.

There, he successfully spelled “defiant” to claim the top spot against his two equally game competitors in Riverside Schools’ Alicia Elyassi and Matthew Dufour from the Ashtabula School District.

A misspelling halfway into the competition saw Alicia’s run conclude with a round of appreciative applause from the crowd. Matthew later placed second to Parker and serves as runner up and back-up if Parker is unable to compete in Washington, D.C.

Judges got slightly ahead of themselves by initially awarding Parker the win one round early. After a quick clarification, an additional word was presented to the West Geauga student which he successfully spelled to win the bee.

The Tri-County contest followed a series of district level competitions across multiple counties that saw the best three take the stage on March 10.

All three student competitors faced down a panel of judges and rows of seated spectators while spelling a litany of prompted words.

Parker explained that he trained extensively before the event with lists from previous years as well as computer applications.

“Languages of origin can be really evil because French has so many silent words, German has unusual spelling like ‘sch’ or ‘aud,’ ” he joked after his victory.

Despite their complexity, Parker said being able to identify the country of origin for various words helped in the long run.

“It helps because you get this good feeling that you know, ‘OK, German has this really weird habit of using “sch” or stuff like that’ and that helps,” he said.

The Tri-County contest followed a series of district level competitions across multiple counties that saw the best three take the stage on March 10.

ADAM DODD — THE NEWS-HERALD Tri-County Spelling Bee winner Parker Pacifico delivers his winning word to the judges, March 10.

ADAM DODD — THE NEWS-HERALD The trio of student competitors take turns spelling during the Tri-County Spelling Bee on March 10.