Gomez earns second spelling bee crown

By Carol McIntire
Editor
Paul Gomez earned himself a steak dinner as the winner of the Carrollton School District Spelling Bee for grades 6-8 – preferably a “SIRLOIN” steak dinner.
Gomez became a two-time spelling bee champion Dec. 5 when he correctly spelled the word SIRLOIN after correctly spelling NIECE, the word which tripped up second place winner Nadia Grimes. Grimes put the letter “e” before the “i” in niece.
Both students are veterans to the bee. Gomez, a seventh grader, won the 5th grade bee a couple years ago and was the runner-up as a sixth grader in the last bee, held in January 2023.
Grimes, whose dad and grandmother are both past champions, is also a veteran in the contest, having competed last year as well.
Gomez, the son of Jesus Gomez and Ma de Lourdes, won the event in the 12th round after the original field of 16 spellers had been narrowed to two.
Jacob Hill won the 5th grade spelling bee in a field of seven contestants in the 11th round. The son of Kelly and Ray Hill correctly spelled “VOID” to win the title after spelling the word “MEDAL” which second place winner Ava Ruble misspelled by inserting a “T” instead of the “D”. Ruble is the daughter of Gabrielle and Chase Ruble.
All four received plaques from Middle School Principal Craig Rodgers, which were donated by Everlasting Trophies.
Pronouncer Rose Seck thanked all the students who participated.
“You all did a fabulous job,” she told the contestants. “Thank you for taking spelling so seriously and taking the time to compete in the spelling bee.”
Judges included Superintendent David Davis, Amy Thomas, middle school counselor, and Stacey Linhart, 8th grade English language arts teacher.
The winner of each bee will represent Carrollton Schools at the Regional Spelling Bee the first Saturday of March at Kent State Stark.

Results of the two bees are as follows with the round number listed first and the students who went down in the round.
Grade 5
Round 1: Kennedy Horsfield, Delaney James; Round 4: Haven O’Kelley; Round 8: Luke Moyer and Parker Shuman.
GRADES 6-8
Round 1: Addison Butler, Jackson Gatts-Morgan, Aubrie Raines, Chandler Gravett, Isabella Pinkerton; Round 2: Callie Deaton; Round 3: Gracen Modranski; Round 4: Gianna Fritz; Round 5: Raylynn Kempton; Round 7: Baden Neely, Jakob Husk; Round 8: Jemma Roby, Nicolette Trussell; Round 11: Bray Jones.