Could Nash Martinez of Willis Jepson Middle School be considered the Stephen Curry of Vacaville spellers? He already knows something about back-to-back championships.
Nash was the winner in the middle school division of the Vacaville Rotary Club’s Grace B. Powell Citywide Spelling Bee, held Wednesday at Will C. Wood High School’s Catwalk Theatre. He had previously won in the elementary competition last year as a student at Alamo Elementary School.
This year, the top elementary honor went to Cooper student Olivia Minashiro, who bested nearly 50 other students at her grade level.
Once again, the spelling bee brought in a variety of students who won their school spelling bees to try and prove their prowess again on the Catwalk Theatre stage.
In the elementary competition, there were two students each from the Alternative Cooperation Education Charter School, Callison and Cooper elementary schools and three students each from Alamo, Browns Valley, Fairmont, Hemlock, Orchard, Padan, Sierra Vista, Foxboro, Bethany Lutheran, Kairos Academy, Notre Dame and Vacaville Christian School.
The middle school level consisted of a student from Bethany Lutheran, four students each from Sierra Vista, Jepson and Vaca Pena, and three students each from Kairos and Notre Dame.
“Every student here is already a winner,” judge James Haskell of Reynolds Law told the spellers.
Haskell was joined at the judging table by Sarah Harper of All Weather Aluminum Windows and Community Development Director Barton Brierly, who is also the Rotary Club’s president-elect.
Rotary President P.J. Goodson agreed with Haskell’s sentiments, pointing out the T-shirts some of the students were wearing with the word “champion” emblazoned on them.
“You had to be a champion to get here,” she said.
Goodson said the competition was first organized 40 years ago by Soroptimist International of Vacaville and Grace Powell, the competition’s namesake who was principal of Vacaville High School at the time. Eventually, the Rotary Club began hosting it.
“We are honored to continue the tradition of bringing together the very best spellers in all of Vacaville to compete for the trophies and cash prizes,” Goodson said.
The pronouncer for the evening was Powell’s son, David, who talked about his mother’s service to Vacaville. She graduated from Vaca High in 1950, began teaching English and history in the East Bay, moved back to Vacaville in the mid ’60s where she served as a counselor, head counselor vice principal and principal at Vaca High. She also was involved in the planning of Will C. Wood.
“She spent quite a bit of time, both promoting (Vaca High) and education,” David said.
The first elementary round saw students advance for correctly spelling words like “engage,” “acclaim,” “afoot” and “tatter,” while others were eliminated for misspelling “cello,” “chide” and “donkeys.”
As the rounds went on, students advanced for correctly spelling words like “subdivision,” “syllables,” “serenity,” “melancholy,” “presumably” and “optimist.”
“I was that way until the start of the fourth quarter in the Super Bowl,” Powell quipped regarding the latter word.
Eliminating words included “diocese,” “incentive,” “scornfully,” “camaraderie” and “katydid.”
By the ninth round, the competition had already whittled down to three participants: Olivia, Avery Chizauskie of Browns Valley and Izek Rentes of Kairos. Olivia secured a win by correctly spelling “malign.” Avery and Izek took second and third place respectively.
In the middle school round, the complexity of the words increased but there were hardly any eliminations in the first round.
Over time, though, students stumbled over words like “smolder,” “perforate,” “tributary” and “soliloquy,” while others moved forward, accurately spelling words like “tumultuous,” “scabbard,” “feudalism,” “trajectory” and “facilitator.”
By the 10th round, only Nash, Alannah Fields of Kairos and Abriah Ramos of Sierra Vista. Nash secured his victory three rounds later by spelling “tease,” while Alannah and Abriah were the respective second and third-place winners.
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