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Tegan finishes ninth at national bee |
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Written by Gerald Gauthier LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Thursday, 16 April 2009 |
She may have gone down in the ninth round but Tegan Odland was hardly out.
The 11-year-old, two-time regional spelling champion from Enchant was eliminated Thursday along with two other regional finalists in the 2009 Canwest Canspell National Finals spelling bee in Ottawa-Gatineau. She finished in a three-way tie for ninth place, an improvement on her 12th-place finish in the competition a year ago.
“I’m disappointed but there’s next year, two more years, I can still try for,” the Grade 6 student said Thursday in a telephone interview.
The word that stumped her by one letter was quietive, which means calm and tranquil. It hardly described her inner state during the competition.
“I was really nervous,” she said.
Odland was one of 22 regional finalists at the Canspell national spelling bee and one of three eliminated in the ninth round of preliminary competition Thursday. Eight remaining regional champions will compete in today’s final rounds.
Despite her jitters, Odland said the experience has been fun and she’ll come home with a camera full of pictures.
Odland earned a spot in the national bee by outspelling 30 young rivals at the Lethbridge Herald Regional spelling bee in late February.
The top speller will be awarded a $15,000 grand prize to go toward post-secondary education. Odland and all her fellow regional finalists will also compete at the international Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 26-28.
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