Summary
DAYTON -- Elleesha Moore's mind raced when she didn't know the final word she needed to be crowned the city's spelling bee champion. All night, the tall and confident eighth-grader from Van Cleve at McGuffey Elementary School had strode to the microphone at Meadowdale High School and snapped out the letters of her word with hardly a hesitation as the audience of about 200 looked on. This time, there was a half-second stall. "I was thinking of all the combinations it could have been," she said Thursday night. "Then I just spelled it." The word was "motley." She picked the right combination and won the 57th Annual District Spelling Bee. Moore's victory over 34 school-level spelling bee winners in grades three to eight from private, public and charter schools was the third straight year a student from Dayton Public Schools won the city bee after several years of dominance by private schools. Two years ago when Moore represented her school, she made a quick exit from the citywide competition in the first round. This time, she was determined to do better and prepared with a couple of hours a week of word study. The practice paid off. Moore held off three school champions from outside the district -- Pathway School of Discovery's Audrey Drewing, St. Anthony Catholic School's Jeremy Gambrell and Michelle Baker from Immaculate Conception School. Moore got her big break in the 14th round when Baker stumbled on "tardigrade" (moving or stepping slowly). Moore nailed "perdition" (eternal damnation) and "motley" (having elements of great variety) for the title. Other words Moore mastered along the way were "hilarity," "lieutenant," "diesel," "pillar" and "cologne." She now moves on to the regional competition next month. Moore, 13, is the daughter of Evonne Moore, the seventh of nine children, and lives in the Dayton View Triangle neighborhood. She plays basketball at school and hopes to become a forensic anthropologist or a singer.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2485 or selliott@DaytonDailyNews.com.See the full content of this document
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City Student Spells Her Way to the Top
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