Quarterfinals and Semifinals

After 198 spellers were eliminated in the preliminaries on Thursday, the remaining 90 were left to compete in the Quarterfinals of the National Spelling Bee. Here are a few of the Preliminary words:

cacoethes

sinecure

loquacity

galimatias

Pyrrhic

beignet

In the Quarterfinals, later that day, the 90 spellers were whittled down to 45, due to such words as . . .

anxiolytic
brevicaudate
palingenesis
majuscule
heliophobous
quaquaversal
hippotigrine

Today, (Friday) the spellers competed in the semifinals for a place in the championship rounds of the National Spelling Bee. Three rounds were broadcast live on ESPN. Here are some pictures of the setup:

Over the course of three rounds, the 45 became 12. One five-year repeater, stunned the entire audience when he mispelled secernent. He became a favorite over the years, and many expected him to win this year. He received a standing ovation from the crowd. The semifinals were very exciting to watch. Here are some of the words from the Semifinals:

schnecke
pyelonephritis
trophallactic
bulbul
cryptococcusis
sciuromorph
solidungulate
Krummholz

Tonight, the Championship Finals will air live on ABC at 8:00 P.M.

Day 4: Preliminaries Round 2

The tension was building up. Even though spellers were not directly eliminated in this round, it helped determine whether or not they would pass on to the quarterfinals. Various words of all difficulty levels were given. I got the word 'laudable'. Unfortunately, I was thinking of the word 'audible' at the time, so I spelled it 'laudible'.

In the end, however, the results were given and I was one of the 198 spellers who were eliminated from the Bee. I was very disappointed, but I realized that it was great that I had come this far, and that the skills that I had learned in this experience would stay with me for the rest of my life.

Day 3: Annapolis

Today we went on a tour of Annapolis.

We saw the Maryland state house, the U.S. naval academy, and went on a cruise of Annapolis Harbor. Here are some pictures of Annapolis:

This is the chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Above is a picture of the marble sarcophagus of John Paul Jones, the first hero of the U.S. Navy.

This is a picture of the Naval Academy.

Day 2: The Preliminaries (Round 1)

It finally arrived. The first challenge of Bee Week. I went downstairs and was told to wait in an antechamber for about half an hour. I was looking over my words last minute, maybe hoping that I would learn something that would help me. I was then asked to go into the room where the preliminaries were being held. I was directed to a computer and then . . . I began the test. The results of this test will determine whether I make into the quarterfinals.
Tonight for dinner me, my cousin Pat, my cousin Jenny and her husband Christian, and Aunt Barb and my mom went to a Greek restaurant for dinner.

Day 2: The Great American Barbeque

The spellers were herded on to buses and shipped off to one of the main events of Bee Week: The Great American Barbeque. When I arrived, I was overwhelmed by the multitude of spellers, parents, and "bouncy-bounce"-esque inflatable games.
Most of the spellers were spending their time there getting signatures from other spellers for their "Bee Keeper" books. There are 135 boys and 153 girls participating in this year's bee. 26 spellers have at least one relative who has competed in previous national finals. There is 1 second grader, 5 fourth graders, 19 fifth graders, 41 sixth graders, 58 seventh graders, and 164 eighth graders. The crew of the spelling bee are mostly college students and many have been involved with the Bee in the past, as spellers themselves or family members of spellers. They all had "Worker Bee" written on the back of their T-Shirts.

Day One: The Grand Hyatt

After a brisk auto tour by natives (Aunt Barb and Henry), we were dropped off in front of the Grand Hyatt in Washington DC. When we walked in, we were intimidated all the Bee Week t-shirts and other spellers gearing up for competition.
When we registered for the bee, we received our survival kit: a red box with all of the tickets, information and the Bee Keeper, an autograph book.

We went to the Welcome Buffet and we started to meet my fellow spellers. We sat with Octavia from the Bahamas and Jake from Michigan.

After dinner, we went to our room on the 11th floor and studied for the rest of the night.

Prizes!

For the Regional bee, I won so many awards and prizes that I can't even remember some of them. However, at the end of the bee I won the Merriam Webster Third International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. This dictionary, containing about 470,000 words, is essentially the "study list" for the National Bee. Any word contained in this massive, 12.5 pound book could bee in the National Bee.




Anyway, the best prize was undeniably the laptop (courtesy of Hannaford). I received the laptop in an interesting way, too. In school one day there was an assembly during study hall for all of Patroon 8-2 (the grouping of students that I am in at school, approx. 100 students. Out of the corner of my eye I saw representatives of Hannaford, and then I knew that I would probably receive the laptop here. I was right. They called me up and handed the laptop to me, and afterward everybody would ask, "Can I have your laptop?" I then brought the laptop to the main office to be picked up by my parents. Here is a picture of me using my laptop:



Scripps also sent me a pack of T-shirts and a commemorative watch in the mail several weeks before the bee.

How I got to the National Spelling Bee

Last year I came in 2nd in the Capital Region Spelling Bee. This year, I was determined to try to win the Regional Bee and go to Nationals.


With some help from my parents and brother, I studied the Spell It guide, which contains over 700 words likely to appear in this year's Regional Bee.


http://www.myspellit.com/

The Regional Bee:

I worked my way through the rounds and spelled my way successfully up to the final rounds. I was nervous, because I knew this was my only chance to get to the national bee. I spelled words (see list below) until I got to the final, championship word: Gourami. I had seen this word while studying, but had never really thought much about it. It had suddenly become much more significant than I had expected. G-O-U-R-A-M-I. When I was told that I had spelled it correctly, I found it difficult to comprehend that I was going to Washington, D.C. for the National Spelling Bee.

Words that I got in the Regional Bee:

1. provolone
2. aggregate
3. cacao
4. biscotti
5. prosciutto
6. efficacy
7. asana
8. GOURAMI
   

Here are a few links to the local press coverage of this year's Regional Bee.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=670976


http://www.timesunion.com/multimedia/video/spellingbee.asp


http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=685969


http://capitalnews9.com/Default.aspx?ArID=115383