Sunday, March 13, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Hyde Park student wins spelling bee

Top two spellers from Clark County schools

Susan Yap hugs her daughter, Sue Ann, after the Hyde Park seventh-grader won Saturday's Nevada State Spelling Bee. Photo by Ronda Churchill.

Saturday's contest to find Nevada's best speller came down to two girls from Clark County middle schools.

Hyde Park seventh-grader Sue Ann Yap emerged as the winner, taking the grand prize trophy and earning an all-expenses paid trip with a guardian to Washington, D.C., where she will represent the Silver State in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee on May 31.

"I told her she should not be nervous and she should not be tense," said Susan Yap, who was all smiles after her daughter won the Review-Journal sponsored event at UNLV. "We did that for her."

Yap appeared to take her mother's advice to heart, standing calmly for each round with her hands clasped, clearly enunciating each letter of each word she was given. Her only stumble came in the final spell-off with runner-up Anna Bax, an eighth-grader from Becker Middle School. After the two girls dueled their way through six rounds of words, Yap almost went down in the seventh-round by misspelling "immalleable."

Bax was able to give the correct spelling, but then she also fumbled a word: "synapse." Under the rules of the Bee, a finalist must correctly spell both the word missed by his or her opponent and a new word given by the moderator.

That's what Yap was able to do with the words synapse and jerkin. Bax immediately congratulated her with a hug.

"I feel really happy and really relieved," said Bax, holding her runner-up trophy close.

Bax's father, David Bax, watched the competition proudly and conceded his daughter was able to muscle through words like "lignite" that would had sidelined him immediately. Words have always been his daughter's strong point, Bax said.

"She's an avid reader," Bax said. "She was reading chapter books when she was 4."

Yap was amazed by her success and plans to prepare for the nationals the same way she readied herself for the state competition.

"I've been reviewing a lot for today," Yap said. "And I'll be reviewing very hard before going to Washington."

The state spelling bee drew 44 competitors from 17 counties. Public school and private school students in grades six, seven and eight are eligible to enter, as are home-schooled students. The field is narrowed by written tests and regional competitions that select the state-level competitors.

The 10 state finalists received trophies. They included: Jared Lupton of Carson City; Shiva Rajagopal and James Delos Reyes of the Churchill County School District; Dean Balan of the Clark County School District; Bonnie Slocum of Douglas County; Jaycob Hughes of Storey County; and Shauna Murray and Billy Monroe of the Washoe County School District.