The spelling bee finalists from the seventh and eighth-grade classes at Chagrin Falls Middle School competed against each other at the Spelling Bee finals on February 3.
A group of 20 students made it to the finals. The seventh-grade finalists were: Lily Adelman, Anna Baker, Shlok Bhattacharya, Lyla Breeden, Liam Butler, Bella Call, Jason Cheng, Zoe Jones, Alexandra Scharpf, Lindsay Schumacher, and James Wilkinson. The eighth-grade finalists were: Fraya Brattebo, Violet Cavanagh, Jake Evans, Molly Johnson, Addi Martin, Cam Mateyo, Grace Mossad, Johannes Rohr, and Abraham Thurman.
The spelling bee was held in the Performing Arts Center at 7:50 a.m. All CFMS students were in attendance and any others were welcome to come after signing in at the middle school. The event lasted almost an hour when Jason Cheng won it for the second year in a row with the word, “fodder.” Anna Baker and Lindsay Schumacher tied for second place. The competition ended early so Jason, along with other students, took on the teachers in a teacher vs. student bonus round.
Before the last few rounds, students were competing with words from their study lists which included words such as jodhpurs, dropsonde, and diaphoresis. Jason’s word was not on this list and he will be advancing to regionals again as an eighth-grader. He also completed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee last May.
Regionals take place on Saturday, March 7 where Jason will compete against other spelling bee winners from schools in Cuyahoga County.
