Colorado’s last remaining student in the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee lost today in the semi-final round.
Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan, 14, of Superior misspelled castrensian, which is a type of Roman amphitheater built in the second century. She spelled it castrentian.
Gopalakrishnan had already correctly passed a spelling test and spelled three words: gesture, tyrannical and salinelle.
This was the fourth year she was competing in the bee, which was held at a hotel in Washington, D.C.
Another Colorado student, Jake Smith of Highlands Ranch, lost yesterday on his third word, piroplasmosis. Smith, 12, is a Mountain Ridge Middle School student.
Evan O’Dorney, a 13-year-old from Danville, Calif., aced “serrefine” Thursday night to become the last youngster standing at the 80th annual bee. He won a tense duel with Nate Gartke of Spruce Grove, Alberta, who was trying to become the first Canadian to win the bee.
Evan won a trophy and a $35,000 prize, plus a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and a set of reference works. He said he knew how to spell the winning word – a noun describing small forceps – as soon as the pronouncer said it.
Evan said he wasn’t surprised to win, but he confessed that spelling isn’t his top interest.
“My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together,” he said.
“And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes – and the spelling is just a bunch of memorization.”
