Houston-area spellers fall short in Scripps National Bee.
Teens representing the Houston area at Scripps National Bee look to future as they exit contest after semifinals
WASHINGTON — Siddharth Krishnakumar’s first trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended Thursday evening on a misspelled Jewish religious custom.
The word, “minhag,” was the third word he faced in the final round, the effort earning the Pearland teenager a tie for fourth place out of 283 spellers.
“I think I did well. I’m happy with how I did in my first Bee,” he said. “I wish I could have spelled that word correctly ... I’m not too sad.”
Siddharth successful made it through two rounds in the finals, correctly spelling “reclame” — meaning public acclaim — and “Albumblatt” — a short instrumental composition, usually for a piano.
A seventh-grader at Pearland Junior High West, Siddharth has spent five years in competitive spelling, but he never before got to nationals, unlike the people he was competing against Thursday evening.
This was the fifth and fourth National Spelling Bees for the eventual co-champions Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam.
“Anyone can get out, even if you’ve come here five times or once,” Siddharth said. “It just depends what word you get.”
The Houston area’s other representative, Shobha Dasari, a friend and former neighbor of Siddharth, also made it to Thursday’s semifinals, but misspelled a word in the sixth round.
The eighth-grader at McCullough Junior High School in The Woodlands misspelled the word “siderism” — a phenomenon similar to animal magnetism formerly supposed to result from the bringing of iron or other inorganic bodies into connection with the human body.
“I had the right spelling in mind,” Shobha said. “But I guess as soon as I asked about the word I guess I was second-doubting myself and I was complicating it more than it needed to be.”
She ended up spelling the word C-Y-T-T-A-R-I-S-M.
This was Shobha’s third year at the National Bee, and each time she qualified for the semifinals. And, each time, she misspelled a word in the sixth round.
For spellers to make the finals they have to spell the words in both semifinal rounds correctly on stage. Of those who do, the Bee selects the ones who scored highest on a written test administered Wednesday evening. They can take up to 12 spellers, though this year only 10 spellers were selected for the finals.
Entering the oral portion of the semifinals, Shobha was in great position to advance after she posted the second highest score on the written test of the 49 semifinalists.
She correctly spelled her round five word “frangipane,” which is a custard cream flavored with almonds. Eleven spellers misspelled in that round.
Another 17 spellers, including Shobha, exited the Bee in the sixth round.
“I was hoping to go to finals this year, but it doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot from (the Bee) … I’ll still benefit from it even if I didn’t win.”
Siddharth also did well on the written test, earning the fourth-highest score, and, critically, spelled both of his on-stage words correctly.
His first word was “katakana,” a set of symbols for writing Japanese script having characters that are generally more square and angular than cursive lettering.
“Respue” was his second, a word that means to reject vigorously.
Siddharth said he had seen both words before — though possibly years ago — so he was fairly sure he knew the spelling.
But, “when you’re on stage, even though you might know the word, you’re always nervous that you might remember something else,” he said.
In the finals, Siddharth said he knew straight away the first two words he faced, but did not know the third.
He still has one year of eligibility remaining, and with a successful first National Spelling Bee under his belt, he said he is going work to learn more.
“Anything can happen. You can get any word,” Siddharth said. “There’s a really vast dictionary out there. You just have to know as many words as possible.”