Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 1, 1990 TAG: 9006010342
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Catherine Dean misspelled the word by replacing the "s" with a "c." The mistake eliminated her in the fourth round of the spelling championship.
"At first I was slightly upset, but it didn't take long to get over. I mean, there was nothing I could have done about it other than study the dictionary," she said.
"I didn't really have time to do that and when you think about how many million words are in the dictionary, it didn't seem worth it. Winning wasn't that important to me."
Overall, the 14-year-old from Clifton Middle School in Clifton Forge placed 80th among the 226 regional spelling winners who competed. She will receive a $50 prize.
The winner was Amy Dimak, 13, of Seattle, who correctly spelled "fibranne," "sans-culotte" and "lanuginous" Thursday to capture the $5,000 top prize.
Dimak wore No. 218, the same as last year's winner. She said she had been studying with a private spelling coach for more than a year to prepare for the competition.
Dean - who made it to Thursday's fourth round after correctly spelling "hallucination," "opeidoscope" and "garlion" in previous rounds on Wednesday - didn't stick around after being eliminated.
"I didn't stay to watch because I wanted to go shopping in Georgetown and I was hungry," she said.
Dean said she skipped breakfast Thursday morning not because she was nervous, but because she just wasn't hungry. For lunch, she ate a turkey sandwich and french fries.
She won the trip to the national competition by taking first place in the Western Virginia Regional Spelling Bee last month in Roanoke. Before that, she had won spelling contests at the classroom, school and district levels.
"I'm really not disappointed. I made it past the first round. To me, that's an accomplishment," she said.
And with a few breaks, she might have done better. Contestants who went before her were asked "nonchalant" and "obstetrician" - both words that Dean said she could spell correctly.
"There were so many words I could have spelled, but I just didn't get one I knew," she said.
by CNB