Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990                   TAG: 9004080115
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

QUEEN OF BEE WINS TRIP TO NATIONAL COMPETITION

It took the 13-year-old from Clifton Middle School in Alleghany Highlands 90 minutes to eliminate 16 other contestants from other Western Virginia districts.

Dean, who won a trip to compete in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 27 to June 2, took first place after a tough face-off with Shawna Y. Heldreth from Wythe County. The two worked their way through some of the competition's most difficult words - "argillaceous," "thalassic" and "illuminati" - with apparent ease.

But when Heldreth misspelled "irrevocability," Dean spelled it correctly and went on to take the match with her final spelling.

Dean wept as she accepted congratulations from her parents and other contestants. The toughest word, she said, had been the only one she and Heldreth both missed: "Polydactyly," which means having more than the normal number of fingers or toes.

"I knew it," Dean said. "And I missed it."

Last year, Dean had also made it to the regional competition - a task that requires winning contests in the student's classroom, school and district. In the 1989 contest, though, she missed "clinician" and took second place.

Dean said she studied spelling for about an hour a day in preparation for the bee with some help from her mother. Her mother, who was still carrying a pile of practice flashcards Saturday, said Dean deserved all the credit.

Dean said she wasn't setting her hopes on her performance in Washington where, she said, the competition will be even tougher. Just getting there will be enough, she said.

Aside from the weeklong trip to Washington, Dean won $100 spending money, a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica and an engraved plaque at the Roanoke Times & World-News-sponsored event at the Airport Sheraton.

Heldreth, 12, from Rural Retreat Elementary School, won second place and a Random House Dictionary.

Montgomery County's Eric Chen from Blacksburg Middle School took third place and won a Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus. Chen, 11, made it through 13 rounds - correctly spelling words like "thoracic" and "xenophobia" - before adding an unwanted "b" to "limnology."

Maryann Elacate, a 14-year-old from Roanoke Catholic School, won fourth place and a 1990 Almanac.