Madeline Stevens, 14, an eighth grader at Batesville Middle School in Batesville, Ind. and Tino Delamerced, 13, a seventh grader at Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati advanced to the second round of the Scripps Spelling Bee Tuesday.
Stevens correctly spelled "homicide," defined as the killing of one human being by another. After asking the word of origin -- it is Latin -- she spelled the word correctly without hesitation.
Delamerced struggled at first with the word "nineties," referring to the numbers 90 to 99 inclusive. After asking for the word to be used in a sentence -- "Jack should get an A in math this semseter since all his scores are in the high nineties" -- he then asked the judges if he was pronouncing the word correctly. Once assured, he continued without any further problems.
All spellers were given a 50-word written test on Tuesday, but only 25 of those words will count toward a score which will determine whether a speller advances to Thursday morning's semifinals.
This year's event has drawn 293 spellers to the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Washington D.C., the most in the history of the 84-year-old event.
