NATIONAL HARBOR, MD – It was only fitting that Lydia Loverin should have been asked to spell “precocious.”
The champion speller and seventh-grader at New Lebanon Junior-Senior High School nailed the spelling of that word and of “hyoscyamine” — a type of poisonous crystal — Wednesday at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Loverin won’t be advancing to Thursday’s semifinal, coming in shy of the cutoff mark on the multiple choice written exam administered Tuesday. Only 49 of Wednesday’s 285 spellers will move ahead.
The 13-year-old speller is still proud of her performance and the ambition it took to get this far.
“When I was 3, I saw the National Spelling Bee on television,” Loverin said. “I said, ‘I want to do that.'”
The competition, known for its esoteric lexicon and gifted participants, is in its 88th year and draws spellers from all around the world. China, South Korea, Japan, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Ghana and Canada are represented this year, in addition to the United States.
The 2015 champion will receive $35,000, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond and an encyclopedia set, among other gifts.
Loverin has been enthusiastic about spelling, writing and the study of English since she can remember.
“She’s so determined and passionate,” said her mother, Caitlin Loverin. “There’s no pressure from us, we’re just facilitating what she wants to do.”
Loverin has already self-published two novels, one of which is “sort of like Robin Hood but with ghosts and stuff” while the other involves “a steam punk organization preparing for an alien invasion,” according to the author.
They’re titled “Cardinal” and “The Association of Q.”
The bee’s 285 spellers, aged 9 to 15, who competed in today’s preliminary rounds charmed the audience not only with their academic skills but with the rarified sense of humor that comes from experience on the nation’s competitive spelling circuits.
“Any chance you could just give me the spelling and make my life easier?” Ankita Vadiala from Manassas, Va., 13, asked about the word “geta,” which refers to Japanese outdoor clogs.
After asking for the origin of “Wensleydale,” denoting a type of cheese, Charles Hamilton Jr. from the Bahamas, 12, dryly requested “an easier word please.”
Loverin, however, was all business. She stood slightly hunched during her two turns at the microphone and spoke slowly and methodically. Despite spelling both of her words without a hitch, she showed little emotion.
“She told us that this is her year to win,” her grandmother, Linda Krpata said. “So we had to be here.”
Last year’s bee had two winners, Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe, who won with the words “stichomythia” and “feuilleton.”
