Somers seventh grader named top speller in Charles

The best middle school spellers in the county were a’buzz earlier this month during the 46th Charles County Public Schools Spelling Bee.

After securing a spot on a three-person team at their school’s Spelling Bee, students were invited to participate in the countywide contest hosted at Theodore G. Davis Middle School on March 13.

Among the schools that fielded teams for this year’s Bee were Davis, John Hanson, Matthew Henson, Mattawoman, Piccowaxen, General Smallwood, Milton M. Somers and Benjamin Stoddert middle schools, Archbishop Neale School and Southern Maryland Christian Academy.

The final five spellers remaining in the seventh round were Cory Hodge Jr., a seventh-grade student at Hanson, Landon Posey, a seventh-grade student at the Christian Academy, Micriza Brown, a Mattawoman eighth grader, Tejas Suri, an Archbishop Neal eighth grader, and Aidan Cobos, a seventh grader from Somers.

In the eighth round Hodge misspelled “meager,” and Suri incorrectly spelled “shrapnel,” leaving Posey, Brown and Cobos left to carry on. In the next round, Posey misspelled “audacity,” which left Brown and Cobos to face off for the 10th round.

After Brown misspelled “remnants,” Cobos had to spell his 10th round word correctly, plus an additional championship round word. First up, he spelled “appendix,” right. It’s a “supplementary material that is collected and appended at the back of a book.”

Next, Cobos was asked to spell “designate.” Which he did, and he did correctly.

Cobos thanked his mother for encouraging him to participate in the Spelling Bee and his coaches Fara Walent and Valerie Amend for helping him prepare for the event.

Cobos was named the Charles County Spelling Bee winner and will represent the county in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center National Harbor in Prince George’s County.