US eighth grader Kayla Tenney Villalobos, who took the “Queen Bee” title at a nail-biting spelling competition in Idaho, gained the winning edge when she correctly spelled the word “Taiwan.”
In addition to hoisting the championship trophy at the 20th North Idaho Spelling Bee on Feb. 11, Villalobos also won a cash prize of US$1,000, a one-year subscription to the US’ online versions of Encyclopedia Britannica and Webster’s Dictionary, and a ticket to Washington to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee later this year.
“I’m kind of in shock,” Villalobos said after she scored the win with her correct spelling of “Taiwan.”
Photo: Screen grab from Coeur d’Alene Press’ Web site
Among the 20 other competitors from Idaho Panhandle, Villalobos’s strongest rival was sixth grader Erik Brunner, who was neck-and-neck with her in round 16 amid a series of misspellings and finished in second place.
Under the competition rules, bees are given a shot at redemption in the following round if all the active participants misspell words.
In the 18th round, Brunner misspelled another word, which put Villalobos through to round 19. When she was asked to spell “Taiwan,” she made the right call and thus took the queen bee title.
Villalobos is a student at the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy, which has produced three other North Idaho Spelling Bee winners.
The 20th North Idaho Spelling Bee was sponsored by the state’s Idaho Character Foundation, whose founder, Dan Pinkerton, said that “Taiwan” is not considered a very difficult word to spell.
He said all the words are randomly selected, and those that challenged the competitors most included “parlay” and “tawdry.”
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