Lorain County spellers compete in 37th spelling bee

AVON — After 24 rounds of words, Lorain County has a new champion speller. Avon Middle School seventh grader Kerem Duyar won the county qualifier for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, spelling "alluvial" — describing a type of loose, eroded sediment moved from one area to another — to take one step closer to competing at Walt Disney World in Florida. Friday marked the 37th annual Educational Service Center of Lorain County and The Chronicle-Telegram Spelling Bee, as the competition in 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19. Kerem was joined by 24 of the county schools' top spellers in the Avon Middle School gym Friday evening. Contestants were spaced throughout the gym, taking their masks down only to spell their designated words into the microphone. "for the most part I went through, tried to figure (the words) out myself, and if I couldn't do that, I searched and found the pronunciation, what it meant, used some flashcards as well," Kerem said of his study methods, noting his mother helped him as well. Family members sat anxiously in the bleachers, some marking off words as the contestants progressed through each round. Friday was the first time the bee had been in-person this year, Avon spelling bee adviser Kelly Callahan said, as all other qualifying rounds were held virtually. Part of that anxiety stemmed from the end of the bee, when the last three rounds saw some confusion. Once the bee is down to the top two contestants, the winner must spell two consecutive words correctly to win the event. But on Friday, first-place winner Kerem, and eventual second-place winner Madeline Roisman, a seventh grader at Holy Trinity in Avon, rocked back and forth as neither was able to spell two consecutive words right for some time, which required the round to start over with the top three spellers in play. Eventually, Kerem came out on top — something he said he was pretty confident would happen. His mother, Jasmine Duyar, said with a laugh that she'd learned some words that evening, and said she was proud of her son. He'd been lucky enough to have the two final words, "alluviate" and "epistolary" in his study session the night before the competition. Madeline was surprised she'd made it as far as she did, and dedicated her win to Quizlet, an online tool for making flashcards. Planning to compete again next year, she said she will probably study even more. Her parents, Christa and Abram Roisman, were also very proud of her accomplishment Friday evening. "She's an excellent reader, she's very proficient at reading and I'm just proud of her. She pursued to the end, didn't lose her composure," Christa Roisman said. Normally, Kerem would move directly on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, competing against hundreds of middle school students from across the country. Due to social distancing and gathering requirements, the 2021 Bee will be mostly virtual, with the in-person competition limited to just a dozen finalists at Walt Disney World in Florida. Periodically setting down his roughly 3-and-a-half foot trophy, Kerem said he leaned toward self-confidence ahead of his win. "Not to brag," he said, laughing. Kerem will take three virtual assessments, with his score dictating whether he moves up in each successive pool. Like the local competition, the 2020 Scripps National Bee was canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the first time since World War II it had been called off, according to previous reporting by The Associated Press. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.