Competition narrows to 59 after first day of national spelling bee

WASHINGTON — The start of the 80th Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday resembled a classroom of students taking the SAT as 286 youngsters from the English-speaking world filled in ovals with their No. 2 pencils.

Along with the 25-word, multiple-choice spelling test, they were also given their only guaranteed moment on the Grand Hyatt’s ballroom stage: a chance to spell one word before an audience of parents, friends and judges.

“Macaroni — what does it mean?” asked 14-year-old Michael Yeh of Kokomo, Ind., exercising his right to ask for a definition before correctly spelling the popular kids’ food often served with cheese.

The multiple-choice test (worth 25 points) and the preliminary oral round (worth three points) served to narrow the field to 107 spellers, who advanced to the quarterfinals Wednesday afternoon. The semifinals and finals take place today.

The Rio Grande Valley Spelling Bee champion, 12-year-old Blessing Taclobao of Brownsville, didn’t make it past the preliminary rounds.

The Vela Middle School seventh-grader notched a 12 on the written exam and misspelled “adjective” in the second round. Even had she spelled “adjective” correctly, it would have added only three points to her total — still short of the 18 needed to make it to round three.

“I’m very disappointed,” Blessing said. “I know that I could have done a lot better.”

She said she intends to watch the rest of the bee with her family. The winner receives $35,000 cash, a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and a complete set of reference works.

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Brownsville Herald reporter Aaron Nelsen contributed to this story.