Nevada spelling bee champ plans to build on national experience

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - Although she cruised through preliminary rounds, Reno seventh-grader Megan Allison Pineda fell short of qualifying Wednesday for the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The field of 278 spellers from around the United States and eight foreign countries was narrowed to 50 based on results from a written exam Tuesday and two rounds of spelling Wednesday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.

The top score achievable was 31 points: six for the oral rounds and 25 for the written test. Students who moved on to a third day of competition all scored at least 23 or better.

Only one, 10-year-old Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kan., obtained a perfect score. As of Wednesday evening, judges had not posted the scores for other individual students.

Disappointed, Megan, who won the Nevada state spelling bee, said she plans to try again next year.

"She did pretty good," said her mother, Vilma.

Megan, a student at Billinghurst Middle School, was making her first appearance in the national contest.

It is the first visit to the nation's capitol for the family, who plan to tour the monuments later this week. Megan's father, Moses, and 9-year-old sister Isabella were also in the audience Wednesday to cheer her on.

Megan showed no signs of distress under the Klieg lights Wednesday, flashing a bright smile as she twice stood at the microphone to have her spelling prowess tested.

The 12-year-old Nevada champ, who was sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, correctly spelled "urbiculture" and "rasgado" to earn six points toward the semifinals.

Asked to spell the word that means the practices and problems peculiar to cities, Megan pronounced the word "urbiculture" before asking for its language of origin - Latin - and then the definition. She then easily spelled out "u-r-b-i-c-u-l-t-u-r-e."

In the second round, she took a little more time to correctly spell "rasgado."

"May I have the language of origin," she asked Dr. Jacques A. Bailly, the bee's pronouncer.

"Latin," he responded.

She then requested the definition and was told it means the effect produced by sweeping the strings with the thumb in guitar playing. Megan then requested that it be used in a sentence before conquering the challenge.

After tackling her two words, all Megan could do was wait for the remaining spellers to complete the round and for their scores to be tallied.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau reporter Peter Urban at purban@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.