Tripped up by word, local girl enjoys trip

In the end, the teen was faced with a word she had never seen before.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Vindicator Spelling Bee champ Lauren E. Johnson of Point View Avenue made it into the fourth round before being eliminated in the Scripps National 2006 Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
There were 275 spellers, the most ever in the Bee's 79-year history.
Lauren, 14, made it easily into the 90-contestant semifinals Wednesday, scoring 18 of 25 correctly in the first-round written competition and then spelling ecphorize, a medical term meaning to revive or rouse, correctly in the second round.
"She was a little nervous last night and this morning, but she's doing great," said her father, James Johnson, after the second round, which ended Wednesday morning.
Lauren breezed through the third round, correctly spelling meridian and moved into the late-afternoon fourth round with 80 other spellers.
She was eliminated on the word mollisol, a type of soil, incorrectly spelling it molasal.
Resumes at noon
The fourth round was suspended shortly after 5 p.m. with 12 spellers yet to take their turns. By that time, 40 of the first 78 had missed their words.
Round four is to resume at noon today and will be televised by ESPN.
The finals will be broadcast live beginning at 8 p.m. today by ABC television.
The unabridged dictionary used as the word source for the Bee contains 470,000 words, making it virtually impossible to know every word.
"It's all right," her father said after Lauren was eliminated. "She's in good spirits. We're here to have fun. She was excited just to be here."
Lauren said she'd never heard of the word mollisol before and thought she might be able to spell it if she could determine its origin.
In the end, she spelled it as she thought it might logically be spelled.
The trip to Washington was definitely worth the effort, she said.
"It's been a lot of fun. I'm really glad that I came this far," she said.
She knew it would be a difficult challenge and said before she left Youngstown that how well she did would be part of God's plan for her.
"It was up to him. I trusted him the whole trip," Lauren said.
Family trip
The entire Johnson family -- father James, mother Sarah, brothers Matthew, Andrew and Samuel, sister Emily and2-week-old baby sister Abigail -- all made the trip to Washington with Lauren.
The family has been doing some touring and plans to do more before returning to Youngstown on Saturday.
"We really, really are grateful for this opportunity," James Johnson said, thanking The Vindicator for its support. "It's been an incredible experience."
The Bee started out months ago with 2 million spellers and Lauren made it down to the last 40 or so.
"That is an amazing accomplishment. We're so proud of her," her father said.
All spellers get a commemorative watch, Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged on CD-ROM, a Samuel Louis Sugarman Award of a $100 savings bond, a duffle bag, T-shirt, baseball hat and a $20 gift certificate from Franklin Electronic Publishers.
Lauren, in addition, will receive a $175 cash prize for her finish in the fourth round.
gwin@vindy.com