Wayne County middle-schooler keeps family tradition alive with regional spelling bee win
It runs in the family.
Zach Yeager, a 12-year-old seventh grader from Chippewa Jr./Sr. High School in Doylestown, won The Akron Beacon Journal Regional Spelling Bee on Sunday at Hudson Middle School.
Yeager’s victory came in the bee’s 11th round when he spelled DIMORPHISM correctly.
With the victory, he earns a trip to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
The Yeager family is quite familiar with the Scripps event. Zach’s older brother Andrew won Akron’s bee two years in a row, in 2021 and 2022.
Brother heads to Scripps bee: Spelling a family tradition for Yeagers of Doylestown; Chippewa teen eyes national bee
Zach Yeager will travel to Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center after his first Akron victory. Andrew’s first win took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the earliest rounds of the national event were held via an online platform.
Zach Yeager sailed to victory, topping challenger Rithi Hegde of Hudson Middle School, who took second place, and Aryan Tankala of Edgewood Middle School in Wooster.
Hegde and Tankala had a short spelloff after Yeager was declared champion. Hegde spelled RECUSANCY correctly after Tankala missed on the word LUTRINE.
Yeager’s other words were citation, entreat, peat, realm, aglossal and declamatory.
A pronouncer’s error allowed Hegde to return to the competition after the fifth round. Pronouncer Jackie Lovelace mispronounced the word typhlology, and Hegde returned to the contest after correctly spelling tenaciously.
Thirty-six spellers from Medina, Portage, Summit and Wayne counties took part in Sunday’s spelling bee.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Wayne County speller Zach Yeager's victory puts him in national bee
