SHEFFIELD LAKE — A mattock is a tool used for loosening soil.

Fiona Sims didn’t know that. She’d never heard of it. And she sure as heck didn’t know how to spell it.

“I knew it had to be either a double ‘t’ or a double ‘d’, so I just went with the double ‘t,’ ” said the 12-year-old Elyrian.

So, with what was in essence a mere a flip of a coin, Fiona guessed correctly and captured first prize in the East Region Semifinals of The Chronicle-Telegram’s 27th annual Spelling Bee at Sheffield Middle School.

“I was pretty excited,” said the Westwood Junior High seventh-grader upon learning she’d won.

After besting 41 other seventh- and eighth-graders from across the county Friday night, she’ll go on to accompany the other top 15 spellers from the competition, along with the winners from the West Preliminary Bee held last week in Amherst, to compete in the bee finals March 19 at 7 p.m. at Midview West Elementary School in Eaton Township.

The winner of the finals will represent The Chronicle at the 83rd Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee competitions June 2- 4 in Washington, D.C.

To prepare, Fiona said she’ll do something similar to what she did for this competition: Study a list of the 100 most commonly used words that she found off the internet.

“Unfortunately they didn’t even use any of those words tonight,” she said.

While “mattock” clinched the title for her, it was luau that she was able to spell correctly after runner-up Kaitlin Huff got it wrong.

“I knew I was going to get it wrong because it always messes me up,” said Kaitlin, an eighth-grader from Sheffield Middle.

After Friday night, one thing she can guarantee is that she’ll never misspell it again.

Contact Adam Wright at 329-7155 or awright@chroniclet.com.

ADVANCING TO BEE FINALS

David Harris – Northwood Junior High
Fiona Sims – Westwood Junior High
Grace Fumic – Avon Middle
Grant Harley – Learwood Middle
Ilana Shapiro – Learwood Middle
J.T. Whittman – Avon Middle
Jaedon Yrad – Westwood Junior High
Jeffrey Emillo – Northwood Junior High
Kaitlin Huff – Sheffield Middle
Keegan Jones – Learwood Middle
Kevin Brown – Northwood Junior High
MacKenzie Boyko – Avon Middle
Matthew Brand – Learwood Middle
Seth Barrett – Sheffield Middle
Seth Tollett – First Baptist Church
Victoria Roland – Sheffield Middle

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