An affinity for Jane Austen novels and Taylor Swift songs converged and helped Arly Duvall outlast and outspell her competitors on Friday morning at the Rome City Schools District Spelling Bee.
Duvall, a self-avowed Swiftie, couldn’t contain the big smile that broke out on her face when her final word karma was given to her.
“When I heard that word, I was thinking thank goodness. I love that song,” she said.
Duvall, a Rome Middle School seventh grader, admitted she didn’t study a lot leading up to Friday’s bee, but she and her mom had an intense study session on Thursday night.
“I was like, I'm probably not going to remember words from more than a month ago. But last night, my mom and I were practicing. This morning, we were reading a lot of words,” Duvall said.
When asked what word was the hardest to spell, Duvall had a quick response.
"Crescendo was the hardest. I'm a musician, too. I play the flute in our school band. I knew I should probably know this one. If I didn’t get it, I knew they (her classmates in the band) would never let me live it down,” she said.
Duvall credits her study session with her mom as well as her penchant for reading Austen novels for her showing in Friday’s bee.
“I'm an avid reader, and I've been reading the classics, like, “Little Women” and Jane Austen books. It really helps to expand your vocabulary. There are so many fancy and gigantic words that they used back then. So, it really helped,” Duvall said.
Reading was also runner-up Trenton Murray’s secret weapon. Murray, a fourth grader from West End Elementary, said he didn’t study a lot leading up to the bee much to his grannies' chagrin. Instead, he said he got his spelling skills from reading.
“I don’t really know what makes me a good speller. I just know how to spell. I do read a lot. I read a lot of Dog Man books,” Murray said.
Although only a fourth grader in a competition against spellers up to the eighth grade, Murray said he wasn’t ever nervous but was excited.
“I’m really happy to get second place,” he said.
The bee consisted of spelling rounds and vocabulary rounds before switching to spelling-only rounds midway through. As the bee progressed, the words grew in difficulty. Entering the 10th round, several spellers remained but the words zinged several spellers and only Duval and Murray were able to correctly spell their words moving them into the finals.
Murray got tripped up by the word mourners in the final round, while Duvall correctly spelled tsunami and then karma to earn the win.
Murray now advances to the regional spelling bee.
Spellers in the competition included Nozomi Perry and Eva Burke from Anna K. Davie, Sam Tanedo and Lucy Larsen from East Central, Anthony Marin-Mora and Samara Blanco-Ontiveros from Elm Street, Riley Watson from Main, Kiaan Bhaidani and Sadie Knepp from West Central, Liam Brown and Trenton Murray from West End and Arly Duvall and Noah Tchouwa from Rome Middle. Joseph Davis from Main was sick and wasn’t able to compete in the event.