NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — As he took the stage Wednesday afternoon in the third round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Deven Sheth expressed what a lot of spellers were probably feeling.
“Are you ready?” pronouncer Jacques Bailly asked.
“Not really,” the 13-year-old from Clinton Township, Mich., replied.
“Should we give it a try?” Bailly asked.
Turns out Deven was ready after all. He easily spelled “recreant,” which means cowardly, to remain in the competition.
By late Wednesday, 171 of the bee's original 284 spellers were eligible to move on, but bee officials were tallying up scores from a written test given Tuesday to figure out who would go forward on Thursday.
Only 45 will advance, based on their written scores.
The normally tough competition was intentionally made tougher this year to avoid a lengthy end-of-bee showdown, as happened in 2015.
During morning competition, Luke Yap of Wichita Falls, Texas, correctly spelled “sciuromorph,” which refers to a group of rodents. He also announced from the stage, “Happy birthday to my sister.”
The 284 spellers participating this year’s bee range in age from 6 to 14 and are almost evenly divided among boys (144) and girls (141). They hail from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the Bahamas, Canada, Europe, Ghana, Guam, Jamaica, Japan, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
For the first time, competitors include a first-grader — 6-year-old Akash Vukoti of San Angelo, Texas.
On Wednesday, the contestants nailed a few real tongue-twisters: Cerulean Ozarow, a seventh-grader from Brooklyn, N.Y., didn’t have to repeat himself when conquering “anadiplosis,” which means repetition of a prominent word. Srinath Mahankali, a seventh-grader from New York City, aced “pyrophyte,” a woody plant with unusual resistance to fire.
Santino Panzica, an eighth-grader from West Falls, N.Y., easily spelled “myoglobin,” an iron-containing red pigment in muscles. And Connor Voorhees, a seventh-grader from Fayetteville, N.C., had no trouble with “muchacha,” a young woman or girl.
Michael Goss, a 12-year-old from Crowley, La., missed the spelling of “preterition ’’ in Round 2, but left the stage with grace.
“It’s been an honor,’’ he told Bailly.
Neil Maes, the 11-year-old competitor from South Carolina who is competing with the aid of cochlear implants, correctly spelled “actinide” in his first trip to the stage. After asking for the definition — a series of metallic elements in the periodic table that are radioactive — and a brief pause to think, Neil sped through the word successfully.
Afterward, he filmed a brief video for classmates back at Belton Elementary School who were watching.
Neil said he had no problem hearing the words and the spellings of other contestants, but he admitted to being a little nervous.
“And it was hot on stage,” he said as he made his way to lunch.
He and his parents all wore yellow in honor of the spelling bee's colors. They had already completed a whirlwind of media interviews. Neil said two of his key study habits involved spelling words on a cookie sheet with his finger in a thin layer of shaving cream, as well as riding his bike while his mother gave him words to spell.
At a Wednesday news conference between rounds, Bailly took note of one feature that has become part of the competition: humorous sentences that provide context for the spelling words. Bailly said he writes a few of the sentences, but that comedy writers tackle the rest.
During a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Paige Kimble, the spelling bee's executive director, said she thinks spellers come into the competition with a “spectrum of expectations” and that officials try to prepare them for reality. But she noted that the event has value even for those who don't advance far.
“They walk away with a broad national network of friends,” Kimble said. “What kids want more than anything else is recognition of their hard work."
Akash, the Texas first-grader who is the youngest speller in the national bee, had to climb onto a stool at the press conference. As polished as any politician, he quickly pointed to a reporter then answered questions about his study habits, his favorite snack and his career aspirations.
He explained that when he was young he wanted to be an astronaut. Now, he wants to be an actor. At one point, he said, he wants to be an "astro-actor."
Asked about competing against older spellers, he said, “I’m ready to get those 15-year-olds out of the way,” but then changed his mind: “I’m not trying to get past the spellers — I’m trying to get past the dictionary. The dictionary is what you compete with.”
A few hours later, he was knocked out after misspelling "bacteriolytic," a word referring to the destruction of bacteria. He used an “a” rather than an “o” in the fourth syllable. Akash got a standing ovation and high-fives as he left the stage.
The past two bees have ended with co-champions. Last year’s winners were Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, and Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Mo. The two battled through 20 tense, error-free rounds.
This year, finalists are facing more challenging words, making such a marathon less likely. Instead of using a pre-arranged list of 25 words, organizers are using an expanded list of words from anywhere in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.
The bee’s preliminaries were broadcast live Wednesday on ESPN3. The early final rounds will be broadcast live Thursday on ESPN2 and the later rounds will be broadcast that night on ESPN. The champion speller — or spellers — will be crowned Thursday night during a prime-time broadcast on ESPN.
This year’s winner will take home $40,000 in cash, a trophy and other prizes.
In Wednesday's competition, Sarah Spencer wasn’t quite sure of her word at first, but then she asked for the definition — a member of the lower or middle class. The 13-year-old from Hattiesburg, Miss., knew then she had it and rattled off the letters “p-r-o-l-e-t-a-r-i-a-n.’’
“I was a tiny big confused at first,’’ she said later. Still, the first-time speller at the national contest had to shake a case of nerves. It helped that she was speller 131. “I actually got less nervous because it was so long until it was my turn that I got less nervous,’’ she said.
Contributing: Michael Collins, Deborah Berry, Mary Troyan, Bartholomew Sullivan, Greg Toppo, USA TODAY.
