Orofino sixth grader wins the Northwest Spelling Bee Saturday and goes to the National Spelling Bee in D.C.
For the
second year in a row, the best speller in the inland northwest region did not
come from better known schools in Moscow or Lewiston or Asotin but from an
obscure four-day in a week elementary school better known for its maniac pride.
Anna Beatrice Grimaldo, a 10-year-old sixth grade pupil from Orofino Elementary School once again topped this year’s edition of the Inland Northwest Spelling Bee jointly organized by Lewis-Clark State College and Lewiston Tribune March 8 at LCSC Williams Conference Center. Prior to this, she qualified for the regionals by topping once more the District 171 Spelling Bee held Feb. 7 at the Orofino Elementary School’s library.
Anna, the gritty kid who captured hearts and imagination during her last year run to the nationals came in poised and relaxed together with 21 other kids from different school districts to start the competition.
She methodically spelled out every word thrown at her during the early rounds and after the seventh round, it was clear that only three of them have gone the extra mile of preparing hard for this year’s competition.
She, together with Katie Higgins of Grangeville Elementary/Middle School and Ian Wendt of Moscow Charter School slugged it out for the next unbelievable 62 rounds taking turns on the microphone and exhausting the words from the pronouncer’s list to force the judges to declare a break for them to have ample time to come up with a new set of words to spell.
Sensing that the three remaining kids have virtually memorized the more than 700 words listed in Spell It study booklet including the challenge words officially published by the Scripps National Spelling Bee and Merriam Webster Dictionary, the judges scrambled for new words not found in the booklet to bring the competition to the next level – harder and more complex words.
First to succumb was eighth grader Katie Higgins of Grangeville who is on her last year of eligibility and fell to the word “rutilant”.
With only two of them left, Anna had the chance to wrap it up in the next round but couldn’t get through the word “inveighed”. And with Ian Wendt enjoying a lot of crowd support he went on to get his chance to nail it and was asked to spell “megalomaniac” but also failed bringing the competition back to square one.
Anna, showing the maturity of a seasoned speller reminiscent of her last year run summons deep into her experience culled from past competitions to take the initiative when Wendt misspelled “coulomb” in the next round. Though not familiar with the word “epidermoid”, she stuck with the principle that when confronted with unfamiliar word – the best course was to spell it simply. Proving that kind of approach runs true; she spelled “sclerosis” with confidence nailing her second First Prize win and another shot at the Howard Scripps National Spelling Bee to be held in Washington, D.C. on May 29-30.
In the end, it was endurance all right but preparation was the key and among the schools, it was Orofino Elementary School’s name that shone brightest that day – small and obscure as we are but not necessarily lacking in talent.
Anna is the daughter of Bing and Elsie Grimaldo.