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Vindicator bee winner stumbles on written test
By Denise Dick
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD.
Vindicator Regional Spelling Bee Grand Champion Annabelle Day spelled both words correctly in the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s first day of live competition, but the written test kept her from advancing to the semifinals.
Annabelle, 12, a seventh-grader at Willow Creek Learning Center in Boardman, correctly spelled “narcissistic” and “Valkyrian” in the bee Wednesday. To qualify for semifinals though, contestants had to perform well on the preliminary computer tests administered Tuesday.
That tested both spelling and vocabulary. Annabelle didn’t know what questions she missed but believed the vocabulary portion kept her from advancing.
“After the written test, she said she was uncertain about how she did,” said Annabelle’s father, Alan.
Her father, mother, Dr. Trang Day, and her older sister, Tamsin, the runner-up in the 2013 and 2012 Vindicator Regional Spelling Bees accompanied Annabelle on the trip.
The Vindicator paid for transportation, hotel accommodations and other expenses for the trip for the regional winner and an adult chaperone. She also got a first-place trophy from the newspaper, gift cards from the Rotary Club of Youngstown and the Downtown Kiwanis Club, a flower arrangement from Burkland Flowers of Youngstown, a Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award and a copy of “These Hundred Years — A Chronicle of the Twentieth Century.”
Annabelle said she’s a little upset that she won’t be able to compete in today’s competition but says she had fun and met a lot of nice people who were her competitors.
Her elimination from the contest doesn’t mean she’s rushing home.
“I’m going to stay and watch the semifinals and the finals,” she said.
For the vocabulary portion of the written test, contestants had to know the definitions of “abrogate,” “beaucoup,” “calumny” and “rongeur” among others.
The bee began with 281 competitors from all over the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe; also, the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea.
Annabelle says the field was competitive.
Only 46 advanced to the semifinals scheduled for today. The finals are tonight.
The winner of the national bee gets more than $33,000 in cash and prizes.
Live television coverage will begin today at 10 a.m. with the semifinals on ESPN2. The competition will conclude on ESPN at 8 p.m. with the Championship Finals.