Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Nathan Rolfes won with the word "caravan," will advance to County Bee
The Mentor Public Schools Spelling Bee was won by the youngest kid on the stage. Fourth grade spelling champion Nathan Rolfes outlasted his fifth through eighth grade counterparts to be named the district champion Tuesday night at Memorial Middle School. Even Nathan's mother, Karen Rolfes, was surprised by her son's success. "He did practice a lot but you don't expect your fourth grader to win," she said. "There's a lot of smart kids up there." When asked about his reaction to winning, Nathan said he was "astonished and happy." The competition first winnowed away the eighth grade champion Eamon Bracken, seventh grade champion Devon Messner and sixth grade champion Nicole Jares. They fell to "squalid," "statistician" and "covetous," …
Thursday, January 17, 2013
The grade-level winners will compete to be the school district's spelling champion later this month
The Mentor School District's top middle school spellers competed Wednesday to find its sixth, seventh and eighth grade champions. It took 38 words, 15 rounds and two near eliminations before Devon Messner won the seventh grade spelling bee Wednesday at Memorial Middle School. He and runners-up Noah Rolfes and Diana Brnjic stormed through head-scratchers like depilatory, miasma, polymathic and incandescence. After Diana was eliminated by "paucity," Devon almost won when Noah misspelled "diaphonous." However, Devon cost himself a quicker win by also missing "malachite." Four rounds later, Devon was nearly eliminated after he misspelled "gelato," but he received a second chance when Noah missed "jitney." Finally, after 15 rounds of spelling …
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Parker Place held a spelling bee for its residents Tuesday afternoon
"We haven't heard a lot of these words in ages," Betty Kerul joked. Kerul was one of the residents who competed in a spelling bee Tuesday afternoon at Parker Place. The words that precipitated Kerul's joke were humdingers like "juggernaut," "lackadaisical," "laryngitis," and "succotash." After five rounds of multisyllabic mindbenders culled from the AARP's spelling bee list, Connie Carillo was crowned the top speller. Her final word that spelled success -- vacuum.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
The Mentor spelling champ was finally felled by the word "araphorostic"
"Araphorostic" means to have no seams and Mentor spelling champion Vishnu Nistala was giving a seamless performance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee until he reached that word. Vishnu -- an eighth grader at Shore Middle School -- had made it to the semifinals, survived the fourth round by spelling "cataphract" and was the last Ohio speller in the bee. Unfortunately, he fell in a difficult fifth round that knocked out almost 20 semifinalists and will not be in the finals this evening. Nevertheless, Vishnu had a fantastic run. He survived a computerized test and two rounds of onstage spelling Wednesday -- he nailed "blitzkrieg" and "stratification" -- to earn one of only 50 spots in today's semifinals. To make it to the national …
The Mentor spelling champion has already outlasted more than 200 of the country's best spellers
Mentor spelling champion Vishnu Nistala has already outlasted more than 200 of his competitors at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Vishnu, an eighth grader at Shore Middle School, survived a computerized test and two rounds of onstage spelling to earn a slot in today's semifinals. He had to spell "blitzkrieg" and "stratification" to advance, according to NewsNet5. Of the 278 kids who traveled to Washington D.C. for the competition, only 50 spellers remain. The semifinals will be televised live at 10 a.m. today on ESPN 2 followed by the finals, once again live, at 8 p.m. on ESPN. If you don't have cable (or aren't near a TV,) you also can watch the spelling competition online. To make it to the national compeition in Washington D.C., …
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Board of Education will meet 7 p.m. today at Mentor High School
The Mentor Schools Board of Education is meeting 7 p.m. today in the Lecture Room A in Mentor High School. The Board and the district's administration will celebrate the accomplishments of several of their students at the meeting, including: Once again, the meeting will be at the high school instead of the board office to accommodate the many students whose activities will be celebrated tonight.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
The Shore Middle School student beat the Geauga and Ashtabula County spelling champions to earn a slot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee
Mentor's spelling champion -- Vishnu Nistala, an eighth grader at Shore Middle School -- is going to Washington D.C. for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Vishnu bested the Geauga County Spelling Bee winner Alexis Zahuranec and Ashtabula County spelling champ James Elliott in a 40-round marathon Thursday morning. Vishnu ultimately won the Tri-County Bee by correctly spelling "gregarious." The Scripps National Spelling Bee will be from May 27 to June 1. This is Vishnu's first trip to the national competition. Last year, Vishnu was the runner-up in the Lake County Spelling Bee. This year he won the district- and county-wide bees
Friday, February 24, 2012
Vishnu Nistala won the Lake County bee by spelling intractable
Vishnu Nistala wasn't losing Thursday. He was runner-up in last year's Lake County spelling bee so he knew what it takes to win. The eighth grader from Shore Middle School studied hard and defended his title at the district level. Then, he beat the champions from 15 other school districts Thursday to lock up a spot in the Tri-County Bee March 8. He did it in six rounds, sealing the win by spelling "intractable." "I’m kind of used to it since I was here last year," Vishnu told The News-Herald after the competition. At the Tri-County Bee, he will face the winners from Geauga and Ashtabula. The winner will travel to Washington D.C. to compete in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee later this year.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Vishnu Nistala wins the Mentor Schools districtwide spelling bee for the second time in two years
Shore Middle School student Vishnu Nistala defended his title by winning the Mentor Schools districtwide spelling bee for the second time in two years. And while it may not be rocket science, knowing about rocket science may have helped him spell the winning word. Vishnu spelled "astrophysicist" to top runner up fourth grader James Roski from Sterling Morton Tuesday evening. Vishnu will now represent Mentor Schools at the Lake County Spelling Bee on Feb. 23, while James will be the runner-up. Vishnu finished as the runner-up at last year’s county-wide event and hopes to win it this year. The other grade-level champs are Fairfax’s Emily Shields, Ridge’s Noah Rolfes and Memorial’s Dallin Crawford for fifth, sixth and seventh grade, …
Friday, February 11, 2011
Shore Middle School student wins Mentor Elementary spelling bee competition
The day before the Mentor Schools districtwide spelling bee, Vishnu Nistala was sick and could hardly talk. Unless he could regain his voice, the Shore Middle School seventh grader wasn’t sure if he could compete in the spelling bee. After getting a good night’s rest, however, he felt better on Thursday morning. By evening, his voice cleared up and he confidently spelled "zigzaggedness," making Vishnu the new Mentor elementary spelling-bee champion. “I was a little bit nervous,” said Vishnu, shrugging his shoulders. “But I’m used to this kind of stuff.” Vishnu was one of the five finalists who competed for the spelling bee championship at Memorial High School Thursday night. Noah Rolfes of Bellflower Elementary was the runner-up. …
Gail Bengele
9:30 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
What is with the goofy face Nathan? Too funny. Great job! more ›