Spellers Nervous As Bee Narrows

"Potpourri" was the sweet smell of success for eighth-grader Jack Ausick on Wednesday when he spelled the word for perfumed flower petals without a hitch at the annual national spelling bee.

Ausick of Park County, Mont., high-fived four competitors as he returned to his seat in the third round of the competition.

Others contestants were not so lucky. Just 71 of the original 273 advanced to the fourth round. Check round-by-round results here.

Fifth-grader Ronnie Cowsert of Port Saint Lucie, Fla., looked a little heartsick after he misspelled the word for liver disease — "cirrhosis" — in the second round.

Sixth-grader Marlee Labroo of Quincy, Ill., gave the spelling bee judge a sad smile when he corrected her stab at "hartebeest," a type of antelope.

The champion at the 78th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee will be crowned Thursday.

Beaming seventh-grader Matthew Giese, known as a Latin and math whiz back home in Mason, Ohio, made it to the third round. He correctly spelled "kakemono" after asking for its definition — a picture painted on silk, suitable for hanging — and hearing it used in a sentence.

Victoria Stanley of Summitville, Ind., expressed the feeling of many when she heard her word — "sciamachy," meaning futile combat.

"Excuse me?" the fourth-grader said, drawing laughter from the audience. After the official repeated it, she spelled it wrong and was eliminated in the second round.

Just about everybody but Megan Courtney of Windsor, Mo., laughed at the mere sound of the word she drew, then again when they heard its definition. It was "trichotillomania," the abnormal desire to pull one's hair out.

Courtney misspelled it, but got an extra long round of applause from the several hundred friends and family members of contestants who made up the audience in a downtown hotel.

The competitors included 146 boys and 127 girls, ages 9 to 14, who were being tested from a list of 950 specially chosen words.

Each speller wins at least $50. The first-place winner gets $28,000 in cash, scholarships and bonds, plus books from Encyclopedia Britannica. That's some $10,000 more than in previous years.

The contest is administered by E.W. Scripps Co. The youngsters all won local contests sponsored by newspapers.

By Pauline Jelinek