Jake Johnston (left), a fourth grade student at Concord Elementary School, won the Troy city-wide spelling bee on Thursday. Pictured on the right is Tommy Lins, the runner up in the spelling bee. Lins is an eighth grade student from Saint Patrick School.
Courtesy of David Fong
By Sam Wildow
TROY — Following 23 rounds in Troy’s annual city-wide spelling bee, Jake Johnston, a fourth grade student at Concord Elementary School, won with the word “sesame.”
“I studied about 10 to 12 times,” Johnston said, saying he was excited to win.
The runner-up was eighth grade student Tommy Lins, representing Saint Patrick School.
“I was just happy that I got that far,” Lins said.
Both Johnston and Lins were first-time participants in the city-wide spelling bee.
Mike Beamish, former mayor of Troy, emceed the city-wide spelling bee, hosted at the Troy High School auditorium on Thursday evening. The 13 schools represented in the competition included both public and private schools, as well as a student from the Troy Online Academy.
“All of the contestants are champions,” Beamish said.
Students had the opportunity to ask for definitions of words and for those words to be used in a sentence. The championship rounds between Johnston and Lins began at Round 6. Beamish explained that, in order to win the competition, the contestant had to first win the round and then correctly spell a championship word.
The city-wide spelling bee is a tradition for local schools in Troy, and even though the other 12 students did not win the city-wide competition, they all have the opportunity to try to qualify to participate in a regional competition for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. By winning at the spelling bees at each of their buildings, those students earned the chance to take an online test, which will then determine whether they have qualified for the regional competition.
All of the participants in the Troy city-wide spelling bee included:
• Sylar Combs, seventh grade student at Troy Junior High School
• Heath Snyder, sixth grade student at the Van Cleve Sixth Grade Building
• Jake Johnston, fourth grade student at Concord Elementary School
• Bentley Ouellette, fifth grade student at Cookson Elementary School
• Carson Clark, fifth grade student at Forest Elementary School
• Ellie Coblentz, fifth grade student at Heywood Elementary School
• Christopher Bennett, fifth grade student at Hook Elementary School
• Addison Fraley, fifth grade student at Kyle Elementary School
• Pranjali Inguva, fourth grade student in the Troy Online Academy
• Tommy Lins, eighth grade student at Saint Patrick School
• Sadie Jones, eighth grade student at Troy Christian Junior High School
• Steven Edmonds, sixth grade student at Troy Christian Elementary School
• Alice Cox, fourth grade student at Miami Montessori School
Clark was the runner-up winner in the spelling bee at Forest Elementary School. Darrian Thompson, who is also a fifth grade student at Forest, was declared the winner in December.
