Plain Local student wins Repository Spelling Bee, earns spot in national event
JACKSON TWP. — U-V-U-L-A.
This was the word that stood between Oakwood Middle School's Blaze Blacketer and the title in the Canton Repository's 79th Regional Final Spelling Bee.
By the event's the seventh round, only two competitors remained − Blacketer and Tommy Schervish from St. Michael School in Plain Township. Blaze went first, correctly spelling 'nonchalance,' followed by Tommy, who needed to spell 'ufology.' He missed.
To secure the victory, Blacketer had to correctly spell one more word in an eighth round. He didn't hesitate, correctly spelling the word that means "a pendent fleshy lobe in the middle of the posterior border of the soft palate." In other words ... it's the piece of flesh you see hanging down when you look at your throat in a mirror.
The victory wins Blacketer a trip to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May outside Washington, D.C. Schervish took second place, and Haven O'Kelley-Hensley from Carrolton Middle/High School took third.
"I didn't think I'd make it past the second round," Blacketer said. "I was surprised."
Thirty-three students from Stark, Tuscarawas, Carroll and Holmes counties started the contest Saturday at Kent State University at Stark's Conference Center.
The bee moved quickly from its very start, with more than a third of contestants missing their first words. Only 19 moved into the second round. Another eight were knocked out in Round Two. By the end of Round Three, only seven students remained.
It got more difficult the farther into the match the students got. Only two students were eliminated in Round 4, and another two in Round 5.
O'Kelley-Hensley went out in Round 6 on the word 'narcoleptic.' Schervish followed in Round 7, before Blacketer locked up the victory for Stark County.
Blacketer's victory is only the second time a Stark speller has gone to the national event in the past five years. Tuscarawas County spellers competed in the Scripps National Bee in 2021, 2023 and 2024. The speller who won the title in 2020, Nick Williams, also was from Tuscarawas County, but that year the national bee was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The speller in 2022, Julianne Lillestedt of Canton Country Day School, won the Canton Repository bee to move on.
Reflecting on his second-place finish, Schervish said he was happy to bring a trophy home.
"I hope they're proud of me," he said of his classmates at St. Michael School. "I'm excited to be honored with this award."
Tommy said he wished he could have won, but he was gracious about the experience.
"I think I wish I could have closed it out better, but kudos to the first-place winner," he said, adding that he's looking forward to competing again next year.
"He works really hard," said Sarah Schervish, Tommy's mother, "and just to get to this point, it's really impressive."
Tom Schervish, his father, said his second-place finish was a testament to his son's hard work.
"The amount of books he would go through on a weekly basis is crazy," he said.
Along with the trophy, a plaque that goes to his school and bragging rights, Blacketer's victory comes a trip to Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Spelling bee competition will be May 27-29.
Blacketer will be competing in an important year for the Scripps bee. Organizers will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first national spelling bee.
He said he's looking forward to traveling.
"I'm excited. I don't think I'm going to win nationals, but I didn't think I was going to win this either," he said. "I'm just happy to be here."
Lauren Thompson, his mother, said she was so excited to see Blacketer win the whole thing.
"This is the third year in a row (he's competed), first year that he's gotten first place for his school," she said. "I am so proud of him."
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Blaze Blacketer of Plain Local wins Canton Repository spelling bee
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