Kendall Mehl, who won The Blade’s annual Northwest Ohio Championship Spelling Bee last year, has done it again.
“I’m very happy. Yeah, very happy,” the Otsego Junior High School seventh grader said. “It was honestly a 50-50 shot, in my opinion.
“I know I won last year, but it was honestly luck of the draw on the words. I put in a lot of studying time, so I was hoping to win, but not fully expecting to.”
She spoke Thursday night after winning The Blade’s Northwest Ohio Championship Spelling Bee sponsored by PNC Bank. A total of 19 school spelling bee champions competed at the Maumee Indoor Theater. An estimated 150 people attended the 60-minute event.
Kendall, who is 12, defeated the runner-up, James Keylock, 13, a Bowling Green Christian Academy eighth-grader, in 12 rounds.
She won by correctly spelling “affogato” (an Italian dessert) after James was eliminated when he misspelled “grissini” (an Italian breadstick). He later said he was “a little bit disappointed, but mostly satisfied.”
To prepare for The Blade event, Kendall said she studied for about an hour every night since December.
“I love doing the spelling bee because I’ve always had a love for literary works, and this is just another way to express it,” Kendall said from the podium after receiving the spelling bee trophy.
By winning Thursday, she has qualified to compete for the top award in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which celebrates a 100th anniversary this year. It is scheduled for May 27-29 near Washington, D.C.
Along with an expenses-paid trip (courtesy of The Blade) to the national spelling bee, her prize includes a one-year online subscription to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.
Last year, she took 60th place at the national competition. This year, she hopes to be among the top 50 finishers.
“I study for about an hour every night,” she said. “I look over all the [Scripps] word lists, and it just takes a lot of quizzing, memorizing and determination.”
Kendall said she “probably” wants to become “a scientist in the medical field or a lawyer.”
The pronouncer this year was Jason Kucsma, executive director and fiscal officer of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. He congratulated all of the participants at the start of the event.
“Your dedication to learning correct spelling and expanding your vocabularies will help you, not only in this competition, but throughout your lives,” Mr. Kucsma said. “Participating in spelling bees like this helps you build confidence, gain your public speaking skills, practice [performing well] under pressure, and set your own personal goals.”
First Published March 28, 2025, 1:32 a.m.
