Harpster
Harpster, OH · Events
Mansfield News Journal
Galion 7th grader captures spelling bee over students from 4 counties
It was a clash of the titans. Arden McCoy, a 7th grader at Galion, and Felix Beeson, an 8th grader at Sacred Heart School in Shelby, squared off for the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center Spelling Bee championship on Nov. 10 at MOESC after winning their respective bees to qualify. The spelling aces dueled for six more rounds after everyone else had been eliminated before McCoy prevailed with "chaperonage," which means the art, stage or practice of being a chaperone, in the 11th round. McCoy had a chance to win two rounds earlier after Beeson missed on "lackadaisical," but he misspelled "orthographize." In the 10th round, both missed their words to keep the bee going. McCoy correctly spelled "malleable," followed by Beeson slipping up on "quadrilateral," in the 11th round. The Galion student connected on "chaperonage" to end the drama. At first, McCoy seemed thrown off by the championship word, but as he did several times with other words, he worked his way through it. "I just winged it," he said of his approach to the bee, which is usually the tri-county bee with Richland, Crawford and Morrow counties. Spellers from Knox County competed as well this time. McCoy proudly stood
