Vindy champ Max Lee fails to advance in national spelling bee

Vindy champ Max Lee fails to advance in national spelling bee

oxon hill, md.

Max Lee missed advancing to the semifinals in the Scripps National Spelling Bee by one point.

The Canfield Village Middle School eighth grader on Wednesday correctly spelled “rottweiler” and “blouson” in rounds two and three, respectively, but his score in Tuesday’s preliminary round, a written test, didn’t garner him enough points to move on.

“They only took 41 to the semifinals,” said his mother, Linglan Liu Lee. “When they announced there were only 41, the whole auditorium was making a moaning sound.”

Last year, more students advanced.

Max didn’t feel like talking after the announcement.

His mother said he scored 31 points and 32 was the cutoff to move on. He worked hard and he’s disappointed, she said.

“The words you see are just the tip of the iceberg compared to the thousands of words that he knows,” she said.