WASHINGTON – Evan O’Dorney will never forget serrefine – a small forceps for clamping a blood vessel.
By correctly spelling serrefine, O’Dorney captured the 80th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.
O’Dorney, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Danville, Calif., edged second-place finisher Nate Gartke of Spruce Grove, Alberta, also a 13-year-old eighth-grader. It is the second consecutive year that a Canadian was runner-up.
“My favorite things to do are math and music,” said O’Dorney, who said he knew how to spell serrefine as soon as the judge read it aloud. “With math I really like the way the numbers go together. The spelling is just a bunch of memorization.”
O’Dorney goes on to almost certain network TV morning-show fame today, followed by many happy hours of admiring a big gold loving cup and enjoying more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.
Thursday night’s finals began with 15 young spellers, looking rested and ready while sitting on stage under bright television lights in a downtown Washington hotel. They were the diehard survivors remaining from the 59 competitors that entered the semifinals Thursday morning.
As the evening wore on, spellers were felled by tongue-twisters such as grognard, bouleuterion and urgrund. Those who advanced stayed alive thanks to a combination of luck, cunning and a keen appreciation for the nuances of the unpredictable English language.
A heartrending surprise came Thursday morning when Samir Patel, the competition favorite in his fifth national bee, lost his battle with “clevis,” a type of metal attachment. A standing ovation honored the Colleyville, Texas, home-schooled student’s efforts to win the bee crown.
The 13-year-old’s parents appealed his elimination over pronunciation of the final part of the word but lost. As an eighth-grader, he is not eligible to compete again.
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