Stockton’s Lyla Oller is Rooks County Spelling Bee winner

Rooks County has a new Spelling Bee Champion and she is from Stockton.

After going head-to-head for six rounds at the Rooks County Spelling Bee held at Sacred Heart School in Plainville on Friday, February 9th, Stockton sixth-grade student Lyla Oller won the contest by correctly spelling the word “jeopardy.” Placing second after the hard-fought word battle was Cayden Klein of Plainville.

The top four spellers from Stockton Grade School and the top four from Damar Grade School, Sacred Heart (Plainville), and Plainville Grade School were in attendance at the competition.

There was no practice round for the spellers, with a vocabulary round interjected after three rounds of spelling.

The first and second rounds took their toll on the spellers since, by the third round, there were only four left to continue the contest. The third round was clean, with everyone also doing well in the fourth round (vocabulary).

Then, in the fifth round, two of the final four were eliminated. The contest then continued with Lyla and Cayden taking turns spelling words including Brooklyn, incandescent, simultaneously, and magistrate before Oller correctly spelled “thyroid,” and then “jeopardy” to win the title.

Lyla will now represent Rooks County at the State Spelling Bee in Salina at Kansas Wesleyan University on Saturday, March 23rd.

Representing Stockton Grade School at the Rooks County Spelling Bee were Bryah Stithem, Kaylee Clayton, Lyla Oller, and Haddie Carpenter. Representing their schools in the contest were (Plainville) Veidyn Holmes, Liam Balthazor, Channing Oehm, Cayden Klein; (Damar) Hannah Gosselin, Kayne Karlin, Daylan Beesley, Barrett Moore; (Sacred Heart) Kaylyn Becker, Max Brewster, Ava Ryan, and Ash Dinkel.

Congratulations to all who participated in this year’s Rooks County Spelling Bee and we wish Lyla the best of luck at the State Spelling Bee.