The first 25 rounds that started Saturday morning had spilled into the afternoon, slowly whittling the 28 spellers down to three.
The finalists sat at desks on the stage of the Mississippi University for Women’s Rent Auditorium facing a written test of 25 more words that would decide which of them would win the Mississippi State Spelling Bee.
At long last, bee pronouncer Aundrea Self received the tally from the judges and delivered the news to the three anxiously-awaiting spellers.
“Now is the time you all have been waiting for, for four hours now, which is a testament to the brilliance of these young minds,” Self said. “Your 2022 Mississippi Spelling Bee champion is Jessica Widodo from Oktibbeha County.”
Widodo, 12, is a sixth grade student at Partnership Middle School in the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District. She will represent the state of Mississippi at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., this summer.
“Honestly, there’s a lot of mixed feelings right now, but I’m very excited. This is actually my second time here,” Widodo said while fighting back her emotions.
Widodo credits her mother with coaching and preparing her to take on the state’s best third- through eighth-grade spellers.
“After I come home from school every day, I do my homework, and after I would ask my mom to say the words out loud for me to spell,” Widodo said.
In an unprecedented ending to the bee, three finalists — Widodo, Eltahir Zein, and Elizabeth Simpson — moved to a tiebreaker round after 25 rounds passed, including five word-meaning rounds. Widodo spelled the most correctly, and Zein and Simpson tied for second place.
Zein, an eighth-grader from Northwest Rankin Middle School, placed second last year and this is his third time representing Rankin County at the state bee.
This was the first time Columbus had hosted the state bee. Previously it was held at Mississippi Public Broadcasting headquarters.
“(This year) you had a lot more opportunities to talk and meet new people. In the (MPB) room, you couldn’t really talk that much,” Zein said. “Here, you could talk while going to the stage. I was initially nervous because of the stage and thought I’d get distracted, but it wasn’t really a problem for me because I was so tuned in.”
Both runners-up will receive trophies, but because the second place winner will serve as the alternate for the state should Widodo be unable to compete, there will be a tiebreaker for the alternate role March 19 in Hattiesburg.
Zein and Simpson were given three options: competing over Zoom, doing an online written test, or meeting face-to-face. Simpson, an eighth-grader at Our Lady Academy, representing Hancock County, ultimately made the decision to compete face-to-face.
“This is my fourth time competing, and I didn’t like the written test. I like verbal (tests) more,” Simpson said. “It’s nervous but exciting and fun, and you get to interact with so many other people. There were only four other people in my county bee, and that lasted about 15 minutes.”
The 28 spellers who competed Saturday came from all corners of the state, according to state bee coordinator Lois Kappler. The students all had different methods of spelling, including imagining they were at a keyboard, spelling out words in the air, spelling words out on their hands and tapping their fingers as they mentally ticked off letters in their words.
WCBI recorded the event, but Kappler said due to Scripps rules, the spelling bee cannot be broadcast until all state bees are completed. It will be allowed to air sometime after April 1.
As the primary sponsor, The Commercial Dispatch is paying for Widodo and her mother, Lydia Yuniarti, to go to the nation’s capital this summer to compete against more than 200 students from all 50 states. It will air on ION and be hosted by “Reading Rainbow” host and “Star Trek” actor, LeVar Burton.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 44 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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