Linsly Student Wins Ohio County Spelling Bee
Trending
WHEELING - It took a knowledge of chemical elements - or maybe of just a Disney dog - to win the Ohio County Schools Spelling Bee on Thursday.
Zack Kuttie, an eighth-grade student at The Linsly School, correctly spelled "plutonium" to end the competition with a victory.
The spelling bee took place on the stage at the J.B. Chambers Performing Arts Center at Wheeling Park High School.
While the event was sponsored by Ohio County Schools, the top four finishers were all students at private or parochial schools in the county. First was Kuttie; second, Isaiah Swiger of Our Lady of Peace Parish School; third, Annaleah Glennon of St. Michael Parish School; and fourth, Emma King of Linsly.
Kuttie and Swiger at the end went back and forth for multiple rounds in attempts to correctly spell a word after the other had incorrectly spelled another.
Along the way, the pair both spelled and misspelled such words as "cacophonous," "vicarious," "attrition," "consul" and "loch."
Karin Butyn, communications and alumni relations director for Ohio County Schools, served as moderator. Rules allowed contestants to ask the moderator to repeat the word, define it, use it in a sentence or to tell its linguistic origin.
Kuttie consistently asked for the origin of the word he was to spell.
"I've actually been taking Latin, and knowing the origin of the word helps me especially with building the word in my head," he explained.
"I typically think the words that are of French origin are harder because they have words that don't have pronounced consonants or vowels. French words are the hardest."
Kuttie acknowledged he was nervous on the stage - "especially toward the end when it got harder and harder," he said.
The Kuttie and Swiger families could be seen congratulating each other following the competition.
Kuttie's father Chad Kuttie said his son's mother "is a phenomenal speller."
"I can't take any credit on that," he continued. "He studies a lot of Latin, and that seemed to really help him."
A knowledge of classic television shows might have helped some of the spellers in the early rounds. Words included "bionic," "dynasty" and "jeopardy." The word "moira" - meaning destiny or will of the gods - stumped an early contestant.
A lot of the words were also science related. These included "pipet," "thyroid," "lymphoma," and "Bunsen burner."
Glennon drew applause during the competition when she correctly spelled a compound word that might have been the hardest during the event - "Erlenmyer flask."