Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 3, 1993 TAG: 9306030252
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Thirteen-year-old Jennifer, a Roanoke Catholic eighth-grader, missed her first word, "skandhas," substituting an "o" for the first "a."
For the record, the word is a Buddhist term that stands for five transitory personal elements of body, perception, conception, volition and consciousness whose temporary linkage forms the individual self (paraphrased from a Webster's unabridged dictionary).
Jennifer was one of 63 spellers eliminated in the first round, from 235 who started the day.
"She keeps saying, `How did I do that? Why did I do that?' " said her mom, Susan O'Meara. "It's a word she knew.
"There's a bunch of kids here feeling the same way."
O'Meara chalked up the early departure to the most basic of competition's casualties: nerves.
"They get so keyed up . . . and make a mistake," she said. "It's tough."
It was Jennifer's last shot at the title. She won't be eligible next year.
"She was absolutely devastated," her mother said. "But she's OK; she'll bounce back."
Jennifer earned the trip to national competition when she won the Southwest Virginia Regional Spelling Bee in April, after three years of representing private and parochial schools in that contest.
The O'Mearas planned to take in a concert by a U.S. Navy band at the Washington Naval Yard on Wednesday night, stay for a banquet Friday and return Saturday morning, O'Meara said.
by CNB