What do the words slave, denim, cobalt, idiom, hyphen, algebra, opossum, dichotomy and aggregate have in common?

Here's what: Twelve-year-old seventh grader Elizabeth Nisly spelled each word correctly on her way to become Bluffton's first-ever Allen County spelling bee champ this past weekend.

The title advances her to a regional spelling bee contest on March 19 at OSU-Lima. There the top three middle school spellers from six or seven counties compete.

"I felt ecstatic," said Elizabeth, describing her feelings when she realized she won the bee. "I really didn't expect to win."

Elizabeth's chance to win the county spelling bee came in the eighth round as she correctly spelled "dichotomy." The other remaining competitors misspelled it. Then she won the event by correctly spelling "aggregate."

In addition to qualifying for the regional event, she won a glass trophy, a $100 savings bond, a participation trophy and a certificate.

Elizabeth qualified to compete in the county bee after winning Bluffton's spelling bee. To prepare for the county event, Elizabeth studied words from a 16-page list (each page contained 75 words).

Her parents, Lamar and Deborah, sometimes quizzed her prior to the bee, although her mother says that Elizabeth did lot of practicing on her own.

"I see a lot of words when I read," says the spelling champ. "Sometimes I look up a word for its meaning."

When not practicing spelling, Elizabeth says that she enjoys reading. "I read two or three books a week," she said. Her favorite author at the moment is Gail Carson Levine.

Elizabeth is active in several school and other organizations. She is a girl scout, plays clarinet in the middle school band, plays piano, is on a Southgate Lanes youth bowling team, attends Club JV and is a member of the Grace Mennonite, Pandora, youth group.

For a more conventional photo of Elizabeth open the attachment at the bottom of this story.