LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee marks 100 years of the competition. The Louisville Regional Spelling Bee hosted a competition on Saturday, March 8 and the winner will head to Washington D.C. in May to compete for a spot at the national event.
Fourteen students representing 14 different schools across 28 counties in Kentucky and Indiana competed in Louisville’s spelling bee.
A winner was declared after 15 rounds. Eighth grader Zachary Rara from Meyzeek Middle School won the competition.
“It’s just really nice,” Zachary said. “I’m really relieved. There’s a lot of pressure on me since I won last year, and I’m really happy I won this year.”
A lot of work went into preparing for the spelling bee. Zachary has been competing in spelling bees since he was in third grade, so he knows what it takes to be prepared.
“You can start studying lists like the ‘Word of the Champions’ list that Scripps puts out every year,” Zachary said. “It’s really useful. I studied it for hours on end every single day. I kind of lost count of how many times I went through it.”
Seventh grader Porter Shreve competed for the first time in the spelling bee. He made it all the way to the 13th round and finished in 3rd place.
“I was really nervous and so I come up and I get my first word, and my second one and my third one, and when I just kept going to the words, I would just feel more confident,” Porter said.
Winning the Louisville Regional Spelling Bee means Zachary will go to Washington D.C. to compete for a spot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
“This is the 100th year anniversary of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which is super exciting, and the first winner ever 100 years ago was from Louisville, Kentucky so there’s a really cool tradition here that we’re excited to continue,” said Kate Schiavi, the Louisville Free Public Library’s youth services manager.
Zachary has been there before and plans to continue studying hard. Participating in spelling bees is something he thoroughly enjoys.
“It’s just really fun to spell, honestly, and it’s a really nice feeling after you get the word right and my friends are also really supportive, and they want me to keep on doing it and I’m also really proud to represent Meyzeek,” Zachary said.
“Bee Week” in Washington D.C. occurs from May 26 to May 30. Zachary, along with participants from across the country, will compete in different competitions to vie for their spot in the final event on May 29.
