Mount Morris student wins regional spelling bee on ‘geocaching’

DIXON – When “vaccination” comes up in a pandemic-era spelling bee, the way is clear.

So it was for 13-year-old Merit Namaste Rose, who nailed the word in the third round on the way to victory Thursday in the Lee-Ogle-Whiteside Regional Spelling Bee.

“It’s kind of on signs everywhere. You need to have it,” said Rose.

She won the contest in the 11th round by successfully spelling “geocaching.”

As champion, the eighth grader at David L. Rahn Junior High in Mount Morris qualified for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

She also earned some snazzy prizes, including the 2022 United States Mint proof set, one-year online subscriptions to Encyclopedia Britannica and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, a commemorative book from the national bee and a $100 Amazon gift card.

After “vaccination,” Rose moved through the next few rounds with aplomb, spelling “frugal,” “celebratory” and “emerald.”

The field, which started with 31 contestants at Dixon High School’s James A. Wiltz Auditorium, quickly was whittled down.

Five students were eliminated in the first round, seven in the second, eight in the third, three in the fourth and two in the fifth.

Tom Wadsworth, who has been the presenter since 1983, said that in his opinion, this year’s roll of words was particularly challenging.

By the sixth round, it was a three-way contest. The other survivors were Jake Andrzejewski, an eighth-grader at East Coloma-Nelson Elementary, and Declan McKinney, a fifth-grader at Tilton Elementary.

Rose spelled “altercation,” Andrzejewski had “sophisticated” and McKinney had “nocturnal.” In the eighth round McKinney bowed out on “besieged.”

Rose correctly spelled “genteel” and “caramel” while Andrzejewski got “tortoise” and “mantra,” having received confirmation from the presenter that the latter word could be pronounced with an “ah” sound.

The tenth round was decisive. Rose spelled “hollyhock” but Andrzejewski added an unneeded “o” to the spelling of “recuperation.”

As runnerup, Andrzejewski received a Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the commemorative book and a $75 Amazon gift card. McKinney got a $50 gift card for third.

Rose appeared overwhelmed after the competition. She had spelled words clearly without hesitation, but when Wadsworth interviewed her after the award presentation at center stage before the assembled guests, she couldn’t speak. She nodded demurely and shrugged shyly to his questions.

Later, after receiving several well-wishers and congratulations, she was more relaxed. Soon she was bantering with her mother Lurana, who is also her spelling coach.

None of the words during the competition were surprises, they agreed.

“I can confirm, she knew all the words,” Lurana said.

“Wow, such a Spelling Bee Mom,” her daughter replied, smiling. She admitted she has much more studying ahead to become accustomed with the higher tier of words that will be used at the national competition.

Rose said she is not involved in any extracurricular activities, so she’ll have no distractions in preparing for nationals.

Liam Crumpton, a sixth-grader from Paw Paw Junior High, was one of the more endearing contestants. In the second round he stopped dead four letters into “atonement,” asked for clarification on the word, started again, stopped, then rallied and spelled the word slowly but correctly to stay in the competition. By the fourth round Crumpton stumbled over the pronunciation of the multisyllable “tentativeness,” admitting aloud, “Oh, I’m not going to get this.” He then had a lighthearted back and forth exchange with Wadsworth, who repeatedly answered Crumpton’s mispronunciation with the correct one. Finally, though, Crumpton misspelled it, departing in good spirit.

As the fourth round progressed, the tension on stage seemed to ratchet up. In fact, each correctly spelled word, and there were five straight, seemed only to raise the stakes. Then Kate Viall of Ashton-Franklin Center went out on “Bowie” and Marley Linboom departed on “casserole.”

There were still five alive in the sixth round. Wyatt Birkett of Meridian Junior High added an extra “L” to “valorous” and Claire Von Holten of St. Mary School-Sterling added an “i” to “unabated.”

Rose is the first champion from Mount Morris since Rachel Hendrickson won in 2006. Sarah Troutman of Mount Morris also won in 2001 and 2002.

Rose continues a run of girls winning the regional spelling bee. Four girls have been the last eight champions. Girls have won 20 of the last 23 years.

Kathleen Keesey of Reagan Middle School was the bee’s two-time defending champion and reached the national semifinals finishing 16th in 2021 as a seventh-grader. She moved with her family to Castle Pines, Colorado in March.

Wadsworth said he has been in contact with Keesey, who is still alive in the spelling bee competitions there. She has won her school’s bee and the district level competition and is one of 300 contestants competing in the statewide elimination rounds.

The national spelling bee will be at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, during the week after the Memorial Day holiday. The finals are June 2.

The Lee-Ogle-Whiteside County Regional Spelling Bee is sponsored by the Regional Office of Education 47, First National Bank in Amboy and Sauk Valley Media, publisher of the Gazette and Telegraph.

Chris Tennyson, regional superintendent, Josh Knuth, assistant superintendent and Dixon High School Principal Mike Grady presented the awards. All students in the competition received a school champion medal and lapel pin.

Judges were Byron teacher Jaclynn Basler-Heather, Dixon teacher Candace Lind and Lee County associate judge Matthew Klahn.