Beacon Journal spelling bee winner moves to Round 4 in national competition

Laura Kessel, Akron Beacon Journal
Updated ·2 min read
Zachary Yeager of Doylestown, representing The Akron Beacon Journal in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, works with the pronouncer during Tuesday's early rounds of competition. Yeager was successful in his first three rounds of the bee, and will compete Wednesday in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Zachary Yeager of Doylestown, representing The Akron Beacon Journal in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, works with the pronouncer during Tuesday's early rounds of competition. Yeager was successful in his first three rounds of the bee, and will compete Wednesday in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Zachary Yeager, a seventh-grader at Chippewa Jr./Sr. High School, has moved into the quarterfinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland.

Yeager moved on to Wednesday's second day of competition by correctly spelling his Round 3 word, "cassata," Tuesday evening.

Yeager has been consistent in the contest so far, saying little at the microphone and asking no questions of the pronouncers. Paul Loeffler, the television host for the bee, joked that Yeager has had two food words so far. While his second spelling word is a type of cake, his first-round word Tuesday morning was “leberwurst,” which is a traditional German sausage.

That correct spelling immediately moved him onto Round 2, which was a vocabulary word. Yeager correctly defined “mollify” to move to Round 3.

Zachary Yeager of Doylestown, representing The Akron Beacon Journal in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, works with the pronouncer during Tuesday's early rounds of competition. Yeager was successful in his first three rounds of the bee, and will compete Wednesday in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Zachary Yeager of Doylestown, representing The Akron Beacon Journal in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, works with the pronouncer during Tuesday's early rounds of competition. Yeager was successful in his first three rounds of the bee, and will compete Wednesday in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Wednesday's Round 4 begins at 8 a.m., and spellers will have to spell one word correctly to move into Round 5. That round will be vocabulary. The bee's semifinal round begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Finals take place at 8 p.m. Thursday.

On to Scripps National Spelling Bee: Wayne County middle-schooler keeps family tradition alive with regional spelling bee win

Yeager won the Akron Beacon Journal Regional Spelling Bee in March.

While Yeager didn’t ask the pronouncer any questions after hearing his first word, his pronouncer did ask him to say the word back to him. That’s a normal practice in spelling bees, as judges want to ensure spellers heard the word correctly.

Yeager said before the spelling bee that his goal was to better the performance of his older brother, Andrew, who competed in 2021 and 2022. Andrew Yeager spelled his first round words correctly both times, but dropped out after missing on his vocabulary words.

Kelly Yeager, Zach’s mother, said Zach and his father, Derek, spent part of Tuesday morning doing some final vocabulary studies.

Derek Yeager has been the spelling coach for both of the Yeager boys. In fact, Kelly and Derek Yeager are both spelling bee veterans, each qualifying for the regional bees when they were younger. Kelly doesn’t remember the word she dropped out on, but said Derek’s was “mettwurst.” Note, that's also a food word.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is broadcast on Ion Plus for Tuesday and Wednesday’s rounds, and moves to Ion TV for Thursday’s final rounds.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Beacon Journal speller Zachary Yeager moves to Round 4 of Scripps Bee