Local spellers compete at national bee

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by RAPHAEL TALISMAN Jason A. Meyer of Lusby, an eighth-grader from Mill Creek Middle School, competes in the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, May 29, in Washington, D.C. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

For Carly Arnold, 14, of White Plains, it was no big thing.

Arnold, an eighth-grader at Milton Somers Middle School, made it through the first two rounds of the bee, and while she spelled her word correctly in the second round, she did not have enough cumulative points to proceed to the quarterfinals.

Her word was ‘‘hackneyed” — a word meaning something that is overused, which she spelled with little hesitation.

‘‘I didn’t know what it meant, but I could spell it,” she said.

The same went for Michael Dugan, 11, of Hollywood, Md.

Dugan is a sixth-grader at St. Johns Catholic School, and his word was ‘‘umbilicate,” a word for something that resembles a belly button.

‘‘I was shocked that I actually got it,” he said of correctly spelling the word in round two.

Like Arnold, Dugan did not receive enough points from the first two preliminary rounds to advance to the quarter finals but still spelled his word correctly.

‘‘I think I did pretty well,” he said of his experience through the two rounds.

‘‘I had never heard it before and I probably will never see it again,” said Jason Mayer, 14, of Lusby about the word ‘‘pileum,” a term that refers to the top of a bird’s head. Mayer, an eight-grader at Mill Creek Middle School, did not spell his word correctly in the second round of the preliminaries and did not have enough combined points from both rounds to continue to the quarterfinals.

The 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee, sponsored by E. W. Scripps Company, consists of two preliminary rounds. The first round was a written test where spellers are given 25 words they have to spell correctly. Each correctly spelled word was worth two points. Spellers had the opportunity at the beginning of the week to come in at various times to complete this portion of the bee.

Round two was the first opportunity for spellers to stand before the judges and spell words orally.

Contestants who spelled their word correctly were given an additional three points to the total points earned from the written test. Of the 288 contestants, 90 of the best scorers advanced to the quarterfinals of the bee.

Despite not advancing, Mayer said he had a good time at the bee but admitted that the whole experience was nerve-racking.

Proud dad Roland Mayer was by his son’s side after the event discussing the different activities the two did during Bee Week. Like the parents of the other Southern Maryland contestants, Mayer’s face gleamed with pride and confidence for his child.

David Arnold said the hardest part of the whole bee for him was keeping Carly motivated, as she was rather laid back about the whole competition.

Debbie Dugan said she was proud of her son and so were his younger siblings, Caitlin, 10, and Jack, 8, who were spelling words to themselves in the audience while waiting for their big brother to perform.

Jack smiled as he told a reporter that he correctly spelled the word ‘‘reiterate.”

Regardless of spelling a word right or wrong or advancing to the next round, each of the three Southern Maryland contestants made it to the big event and made friends in the process.

Arnold quickly bonded with a girl close to her age from California, Shannon Lin.

The two said they would try to keep in contact after the spelling bee through the interactive Web site Gaia.com.

Mayer and his father spent time at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, better known as the National Zoo, with a contestant from Florida, and Dugan and his family spent the week interacting with different families and contestants.

‘‘Everyone is just so nice,” said Patrick Dugan, Michael’s dad.

The contestants are back in school this week sharing the experience with students and staff.