Kavya Shivashankar won the 82nd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night. The 13-year-old eighth-grader from Olathe, Kan., correctly spelled "Laodicean," meaning lukewarm or indifferent in religion, to win $40,000 in cash and prizes. Second place went to Tim Ruiter, 12, from Centreville, Va.
Eleven elite wordsmiths bumped brains in the finals of the Bee televised live during prime time. They'd had a few hours to rest after jousting through three rounds of semifinals in three and a half mind-pulverizing hours earlier in the day.
The evening competition, hosted by Tom Bergeron of "America's Funniest Home Videos," was marked by drama, heartbreak and excitement.
Nobody had to tell Neetu Chandak of Seneca Falls, N.Y., to celebrate good times. The 13-year-old bent over, threw her hands up in victory and said, "Yes!" after acing "ophelimity" - economic gratification.
Her elation came just before the bell rang for the first time Thursday night, signaling the first speller felled in the first round of the finals.
"Herniorrhaphy," a surgical term, cut Tussah Heera of Las Vegas, Nev., out of the competition. The 13-year-old eighth-grader rushed to her mother, who patted her face soothingly as Heera began to cry.
During a commercial break in the live broadcast on ABC, 14-year-old Leah Amor Marie Isip of Dover, Del., ran up to get a hug from Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden and an English teacher.
Biden gave the kids a pep talk before the competition went live, emphasizing the importance of confidence. She told the 293 Bee participants that they "were among the best and the brightest, and I'm really proud of you."
Biden shared that she was the championship speller of her sixth-grade class, but on the morning she was to compete at the next level she changed her mind.
"I was so nervous and so shy that I told my mom I was sick," Biden said. "I've always regretted that."
Then Biden took her seat in the front row, at least one Secret Service agent seated nearby just in case of d-a-n-g-e-r.
Some of the bright youngsters vying for top speller said they are used to being in a verbal foxhole together like Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kan., and Sidharth Chand of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
"Even though we're competitors, we know that the only thing that can defeat us is the dictionary," Shivashankar said.
In the semis, the two 13-year-olds -- both considered favorites to become the 2009 champ -- gave a standing ovation to fellow veteran Bee competitor Josephine Kao of Roseville, Calif.
"She's a friend, and she's been here the same number of times I've been here," said Shivashankar, who wrapped up her fourth national Bee.
One of the biggest surprises of the evening came when Chand struggled with "apodyterium," a dressing room at the entrance of Greek or Roman baths. Chand finished second in last year's Bee, but the complicated, ancient word was his undoing when he spelled it "apodeiterium."
At the ding, he covered his face with his hands as the crowd groaned. While Chand walked to his family on the other side of the stage, his fellow finalists, their families onstage and the audience stood and applauded. Chand again hid his face, but then he propped his chin on his fist and remained onstage to watch the action.
Chandak smiled right to the end of her time in the Bee. When she tentatively spelled "derriengue," leaving out an "r," she grinned and said, "Ding."
Shivashankar took home $30,000 in cash and more than $10,000 in prizes. The second-place winner received $12,500. Third place received $7,500. The cash prizes diminished with each rank, down to a minimum of $100 for each participant.
Trish Choate can be reached at choatet(at)shns.com.
INFO BOX
Scripps National Spelling Bee Finalists
Eleven spellers made the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee televised Thursday night. In order of finish:
1. Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kan.
2. Tim A. Ruiter of Centreville, Va.
3. Aishwarya Eshwar Pastapur of Springfield, Ill.
4. Kyle M. Mou of Peoria, Ill.
5. Anamika Veeramani of North Royalton, Ohio
6. Kennyi Kwaku Aouad of Terre Haute, Ind.
7. Ramya Auroprem of San Jose, Calif.
8. Neetu Chandak of Seneca Falls, N.Y.
9. Sidharth Chand of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
10. Serena Skye Laine-Lobsinger of West Palm Beach, Fla.
11. Tussah Heera of Las Vegas, Nev.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Multiple spellings
I was rather amazed when I heard the announcer present the word XEBEC. My first thought was: how can she get it right, since there are (at least) 3 correct spellings. As a scrabble player, I know it is acceptable as XEBEC, ZEBEC and ZEBECK. Indeed, the scrabble dictionary is not an authoritative measure of a word's spelling. Words therein are from at least four sources. But, the mere fact that many dictionaries contain ZEBEC and ZEBECK should have made this word ineligible for the finals of the bee.
I was so happy for her when she spelled it the way it was presented.
Actually, this is not
Actually, this is not correct. Most of the kids tied. Tim Ruiter and Aishwarya tied for second. And the other kids also tied for their respective places.
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