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- Mary Polking awaits her turn to spell in the morning round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee Wednesday. (Anna Bisaro/MNS)
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD – “A-P-O-G-E-E.” And just like that, Katie Danis, 14, made it through the second round on stage at the Scripps National Spelling Bee Wednesday.
Some kids traced letters on their hands’; others spoke in a metronomic rhythm. Many spellers asked for the language of origin or definition. Several asked pronouncer Jacques Bailly, the 1980 bee champion, to use the word in a funny sentence.
To deal with nerves, Katie sings in her head as she traces the letters. She usually settles in as she is spelling, she said, not before she begins. Sometimes she sings the letters. Wednesday she did not need to sing to pass both on-stage rounds.
“I have an eclectic taste in music,” Katie said.
Katie Danis, 14, successfully spells two words on stage on Wednesday, but did not make it to the semi-finals. (Anna Bisaro/MNS)
Fourteen spellers represented North Carolina in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday. No North Carolina spellers advanced to the semi-final round.
Mary Polking and Thomas Manning, both of Charlotte, were eliminated in the second on-stage round after successfully spelling in the first. Both were first-time spellers in the bee, unlike Katie who made her third appearance.
“Now I know what to expect so it’s easier,” Katie said. She has never made it to the semi-final round. “This is my last chance,” she said earlier this week.
Surviving the two on-stage rounds was just part of the process Wednesday. All 281 spellers completed a computer spelling and vocabulary test Tuesday evening. Of the 223 spellers remaining Wednesday afternoon, 46 were chosen to advance to the semifinals based on their test scores.
Mary said Tuesday she was feeling confident leading into the bee. She won the bee at Holy Trinity Catholic Middle School earlier this year. That got her interested in competitive spelling.
After the bell rang, notifying her that she had misspelled her second word, Mary turned back to the judges and said, “That’s a nice bell, by the way.”
A first-time competitive speller at the national bee like Mary, Thomas said he wanted to make his school proud. Despite his nerves, he walked confidently up to the microphone both times and started a conversation with Bailly. “I just wanted to make an impression,” he said later.
Thomas spent his lunch break between the two on-stage rounds studying from a list of more than 2,000 words provided by the judges as a guide. He said unlike his competitive running of 5K races and half-marathons, spelling causes him anxiety. “You can’t relieve stress in spelling unless you spell the word right,” he said.
Thomas Manning, 14, heads up to the microphone from his seat Wednesday morning. Thomas dealt with nerves by chatting with the pronouncer. (Anna Bisaro/MNS)
The 70th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord Convention Center in Prince Georges, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.
While Katie Danis will not move on, she wants to bring her love of language to her future career.
“I’ve always known this is for me,” Katie said. She loves philosophy and Latin and hopes to someday be a classics professor, she said.
Even before Katie stepped up to the microphone on Wednesday, she said, “It’s been a spectacular journey.”
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