LAKE ASBURY – The word eradicate means to destroy. For Keystone Heights Junior High’s Rena Reddish, it’s a word that clinched the Clay County District School’s Annual Spelling Bee at Lake Asbury Junior High on Feb. 21.

The eighth grader survived 12 rounds of words and 35 other competitors to advance to the Northeast Florida Regional Spelling Bee with a chance to move to the Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 28 in Maryland.

“I guess I’ve always been a good speller,” Reddish said after winning the county title for the second consecutive year. “The only word I was worried about was the one in the second-to-last round.”

But she still spelled “reverberate” without any problem.

After Reddish correctly spelled “succumb” in the 11th round, Orange Park Junior High’s Andreas Alvarez missed “follicle.” Reddish easily spelled “eradicate” to earn the applause of Superintendent David Broskie, school board members Mary Bolla and Beth Clark, school district teachers and families.

As the defending champion, Reddish said she was more comfortable this year.

“I was a little more nervous last year because it was my first year, and it was the first time I won,” she said.

Seven spellers were eliminated in the first round. The field was whittled to 18 after 11 missed words in the second round.

The field narrowed to eight for Round 7 and six misspelled their words to leave Reddish and Alvarez. They correctly spelled their words for three rounds before Alvarez’s miss in Round 11.

Reddish said she studied words she believed would be called. Another factor is where particular words fell in the rotation.

For example, words like “Masovian” and “incontrovertible” were asked in the first round, while words like “bushy” and “masa” were part of the second round words.

Another key to success was not overthinking the process.

“I picture the word in my head, and then I spelled it. I went with what I thought was right,” Reddish said.

News of Reddish’s accomplishment got back to Keystone Heights before she did. The School Board recognized her at its March 2 meeting, and the Keystone Heights City Council honored their speller at its March 5 monthly meeting.