How good were the 25 spellers from March’s TCU College of Education Regional Spelling Bee?

The youngsters from 18 North Texas school districts (plus one homeschool student) called out correct letters so well so often that officials skipped ahead to tougher words to challenge them, said Jan Lacina, associate dean of the college, which has sponsored the event since 2011.

But after 3 1/2 hours and 26 rounds, 12-year-old Ansun Sujoe from Parkwood Hill Intermediate in Keller Independent School District accurately spelled “eschewal” – which means shunning avoidance – to win the competition and the right to represent the 16-county region at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 28-30.

Other tricky words included: pfeffernusse, nenuphar, barukhzy, hartebeest. Word origins ranged from Sanskrit to Greek to Afrikaans.

“This is a wonderful event for the College of Education to be associate itself,” Lacina said. “We always talk about the purpose is to encourage young students to improve their spelling and vocabulary and learn all about the wonderfully complex English language which draws from literally the whole world.”

Students from 457 schools in 16 counties participated in the bee program this year. The 25 students who competed at TCU qualified for the regional bee by winning their school bee and a district or area bee, Lacina said.

On the Web:
TCU360 coverage
Fort Worth Star-Telegram coverage

From the archives:
2011 Spelling Bee
2012 Spelling Bee

Video:
Star-Telegram video of 2013 winner