money Jayden Zheng wins 2023 Potter County Spelling Bee
Jayden Zheng, a seventh-grader from Bonham Middle School, emerged as the new Potter County Spelling Bee Champion Thursday in a heated competition held at George Washington Carver Academy.
This year’s competition had 51 students vying for spelling supremacy from across Potter County. After the first round, 15 students were eliminated, including seven students in a row. By the end of round four, only 10 students remained on stage, including last year’s champion, Arnie Parat. Three rounds later, the field had narrowed to only three contestants: Chloe Pennington, Zheng and Parat. Pennington from Houston Middle School was eliminated in round nine, leaving the two standing.
From round 10 to 41, Zheng and Parat went back and forth without misspelling a word. As words such as rastafarian, cartouches and pertinacity were given to them, both competitors never blinked as they pushed the spelling bee deep into the dictionary to challenge them.
In the 41st round, after Zheng spelled the word villainous, Parat was given a word that he said he had never heard before. He proceeded to spell disseminate, getting every letter right except the second letter, in which he used an "e" rather than an "i". Zheng was then given the winning word, concavity, which he carefully spelled to become the new champion.
Parat, who now attends de Zavala Middle School, described this year’s competition as being much longer than last year’s, which went a little over 20 rounds. He said that he felt very confident with every word but was not familiar with the word that he missed.
He said that he learned a lot from his experience last year, which sent him to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., and this year’s competition, to which he acquitted himself with a second-place finish. Parat said that he will be working hard to prepare for next year and expand his studies to go beyond the study material, such as the words of champions.
“I am going to not just revise the words of champions but will expand to include more sources for words,” Parat added. “I had fun today, but I know I can improve.”
Zheng said that he was incredibly nervous during the competition but worked through each word to become the winner. Of his winning word, concavity, Zheng said that he had also not heard that word before, and if given the word that the runner-up had received, he felt that he might have ended up missing it.
"I was surprised when he missed it; I would probably not have got it as well,” Zheng said.
With about 10 hours of study per week preparing for the competition, Zheng said he was never sure he would win until he spelled the last word. He said that today’s competition gave him a lot more confidence for the next level of competition, since he knew he was going against one of the best spellers in the nation.
Barbera Wong, the champion speller's mom, was recognized by her son for her help in studying for the competition. She describes herself as a less-than-exceptional speller because English is her second language to Chinese. Wong is a finance professor at West Texas A&M University.
“I was there more for emotional support because the materials he was given are very effective for studying for the competition,” Wong said. “I rely on spell check too much."
She said that it was hard to be confident that her son would come out victorious, especially with Parat being such a good speller. She said she was never sure until he spelled the last word.
“I was so relieved when he got the last word right,” Wong said. “With a spelling bee, luck can become a big role because sometimes you happen to get a word that you really do not know, so you never really know what will happen no matter how much hard work is put in.”
Wong said that it's once again time to get busy studying for the Regional Spelling Bee, which will be held Feb. 11 at Tascosa High School, with the winner moving on to the national competition.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Jayden Zheng wins Potter County Spelling Bee
