It took 17 rounds, but in the end, Heard-Mixon Elementary School fifth-grader, Rylan Yeager, was named Newton County School System’s (NCSS) top speller and champion of the 2022 District Spelling Bee! Yeager and runner-up, Cameron Rutberg of Newton County Theme School, battled it out for multiple rounds before the Heard-Mixon student successfully spelled, “drizzle” to win the competition.
“I was so happy,” said Yeager. “I did not think I would win, and I did not even know there was a trophy for this one. I thought there was only a trophy for the national,” she said while clutching her well-deserved award.”
Yeager noted she prepared for the Bee by asking people to give her practice words and the morning of the Spelling Bee she even tried reading her dictionary for some last-minute studying.
She added that she was somewhat surprised by the difficulty of many of the words called in the Bee.
“There were some really hard words in this one,” she noted. “Some of them were very easy and basic but some of them were words I’ve never even heard of.”
As a result, Yeager, who will represent Newton County Schools in the Regional Bee at Edwards Middle School in Conyers, Georgia on February 26, 2022, said she would definitely be reading her dictionary to help prepare for the upcoming competition.
“I am very proud of Rylan,” said Dr. Penny Mosley, NCSS Director of Elementary Schools. “She did a phenomenal job today. Many of the words called were pulled from the Scripps National Spelling Bee winners’ list, so they weren’t easy.”
Mosley added, “Rylan is only in fifth-grade and was competing against the best elementary and middle school spellers in the county. Her win says a lot about her ability. As a result, I have no doubt she will represent our school system very well in the Regional Spelling Bee next month!”
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