Grade 7 Student Sarah Tomeo Wins Middle School Spelling Bee

St. Margaret’s Middle School students assembled in the Performing Arts Center on Friday to watch its top spellers compete for a chance to move on to the Orange County Spelling Bee.

The competition was intense this year, taking four rounds to identify the final three spellers who would move on to the championship round. In the end, grade 7 student Sarah Tomeo was the winner after spelling “diminuendo” correctly, while Simone Yang took second after spelling “coniferous.” Alex Fournier took third place.

Sarah and Simone will move on to the Orange County Spelling Bee written round on Feb. 20 at the Orange County Department of Education. This round serves as qualification for the oral round of the Orange County Spelling Bee to be held on Feb. 25. 

All Middle School students took a qualification quiz in their English classes, and the top students were invited to compete in the Middle School Spelling Bee on Friday. The competition began with an oral round where students were asked to spell words like “rheumatic” and “prestidigitation” -- words taken from the Scripps National Spelling Bee Association to qualify for the final round. The words became increasingly more difficult as students advanced through the competition. 

It took four rounds to identify Sarah, Simone and Alex as the final three spellers who would move on to the championship round.

Once the championship round participants were identified, they were invited forward to three spots on the front of the stage for the championship round.  The championship round is a written, single elimination round with high-difficulty words.