Posted on 06/01/2005 5:55:56 AM PDT by Momaw Nadon
WASHINGTON - Seventh-grader Tyler Curtis says he's never had to worry much about doing well at his studies, and he's not about to start now.
That's saying something. Tyler is facing 272 of the country's best young spellers — and the biggest prize ever — at the 78th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee running Wednesday and Thursday.
"It would be nice to win," the 13-year-old from Camden, Tenn., said Tuesday. "But I'm not going to get all stressed out over it."
His competitors include 145 boys and 127 girls aged 9 to 14, mostly from around the country and U.S. territories. There are more than a dozen foreign students from as close as Canada and as far away as New Zealand.
All contestants take a written test early Wednesday, then face oral quizzing from a list of some 950 specially chosen words.
Each speller wins at least $50, and the first-place winner gets $28,000 in cash, scholarships and bonds, plus a set of encyclopedias and other books from Encyclopedia Britannica. That's some $10,000 more than in previous years because of the addition of a cash award and a scholarship for 2005.
The contest is administered by E.W. Scripps Co., and the youngsters have all won local contests sponsored by Scripps papers or other individual newspapers. It was started in 1925 by the Louisville Courier-Journal with nine contestants and was suspended only during the World War II years of 1943-1945.
Over the years, the contest has produced its share of joy, queasy stomachs and tears. But if contestants were nervous ahead of the competition, they weren't admitting it Tuesday.
"If I don't make it this year, I'll try again next year," said 13-year-old Erica Little of Freeport, Ill.
"I came here for the fun," said Little, who made the trip a family vacation and was touring Washington with her parents and grandparents, her 10-year-old brother, Blake, and friend Molly Neary.
Since arriving in the capital over the weekend, contestants have had a full schedule of non-spelling activities — a pizza party and board game festival one day and picnic the next.
"Just coming to Washington was the goal," said 12-year-old Theodore Yuan of Lincolnshire, Ill.
The seventh-grader said he was a bad speller until fifth grade, then surprised his parents by winning the first time he entered his school's spelling bee.
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On the Net:
Scripps National Spelling Bee:
http://www.spellingbee.com/
Laura Brown spells daguerreotypes correctly!
Jonathan Horton spells exanthematic correctly!
Levi Foster spells brigantine correctly!
Evan O'Dorney spells insessorial correctly!
Kimberly Olson spells diablerie correctly!
Joseph Shepherd spells myasthenia correctly!
Hannah Smith spells pleurisy correctly!
Jack Ausick spells renascent correctly!
Marshall Winchester spells fulgurant correctly!
Samir Patel spells objicien correctly!
Round 5 is now complete and there are 11 homeschoolers remaining. Peacock and Nieman dropped out.
Ouch, just lost homeschoolers Cari Peacock and Claire Nieman.
Congrats to both on making it this far!
11 of the 34 homeschoolers have advanced to Round #6.
These are the remaining homeschoolers:
1. Brown, Laura
5. Horton, Jonathan
7. Foster, Levi
11. O'Dorney, Evan
45. Olson, Kimberly
59. Shepherd, Joseph
126. Brazeal, Forrest
133. Smith, Hannah
142. Ausick, Jack
172. Winchester, Marshall
238. Patel, Samir
Marshall Winchester is probably the strongest speller out of the group. Jack Ausick is also very strong.
Jonathan Horton spells baccalaureate correctly!
Just lost homeschoolers Laura Brown and Levi Foster.
Congrats to both on making it this far!
Evan O'Dorney spells jalousie correctly!
Just lost homeschooler Kimberly Olson.
Congrats Kimberly on making it this far!
Joseph Shepherd spells olid correctly!
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