Lucy Heath knows the importance of “bee-ing” persistent.
The eighth grader at Langley-Bath-Clearwater Middle School has been competing in spelling bees since the fourth grade and dreamed of taking home the county's top prize this year during her final year of eligibility.
Monday night, Heath's dream came true, winning the Aiken County Scripps National Spelling Bee and earning the title of the Aiken County Public Schools' top speller competing with 11 of her peers on her home turf in the LBC auditorium.
On the 219th word, after about an hour on stage, Heath showed no stress spelling the word “duress” correctly after spelling “tyrannical” before correctly, too, to win the championship. She battled first runner-up Rena Humes, a seventh grader at Kennedy Middle School who won last year's bee, through 17 rounds of one-on-one spelling after about 10 rounds of the regular competition.
Heath, a daughter of Clinton and Deborah Heath of North Augusta, will travel to Washington, D.C., May 24-29 to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee with America's best spellers.
“I was hoping to win. I've been studying for it for a long time,” Heath, who has never been to Washington, said after the bee. “I study by writing down each word in a notebook; and then sometimes my Mom calls out the words to me, and I spell them to her.”
Heath said no one word in the Bee was particularly “tough" in this year's competition.
“Each word presents it's own challenges,” she said.
And although Heath appeared cool and calm as she began to spell “duress” for the win, she said she was nervous.
Click here to read the full Aiken STandard article.