Washington – Thirteen- year-old Evan O’Dorney of Danville, Calif., aced the word “serrefine” – defined as a small forceps – Thursday night to become the last youngster standing at the 80th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.
He triumphed after a tense duel with Nate Gartke of Spruce Grove, Alberta, who was trying to become the first Canadian to win.
Colorado’s last remaining student, Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan, 14, of Superior, had been eliminated earlier Thursday in the semifinal round.
She misspelled “castrensian,” a type of Roman amphitheater built in the second century. She spelled it “castrentian.”
Gopalakrishnan already had correctly passed a spelling test and spelled three words: gesture, tyrannical and salinelle.
This was the fourth year Gopalakrishnan was competing in the bee, which was held at a hotel in Washington, D.C.
Another Colorado student, Jake Smith of Highlands Ranch, was eliminated Wednesday on his third word, “piroplasmosis.” Smith, 12, is a Mountain Ridge Middle School student.
As champion, 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 as soon as the pronouncer said it.
Evan said he wasn’t surprised he won, 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.”
Evan and Nate went head-to- head for three rounds, matching each other’s triumphs until Nate flubbed the medical word “coryza.”
Until then, Nate had been quite the showman, waving celebritylike to the audience after each word and basking in the cheers from a row that waved red-and-white maple- leaf flags.
