Arlington speller Mark De Los Santos made it to the sixth round of the semifinals at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday but was stopped by a word he didn't know: himation.
Here's a video by Elise Brown, Medill News Service
"I had some intuition about the word," De Los Santos said afterward, but he guessed wrong on the first vowel, spelling it with an "e" instead of an "i."
"I felt a little bit disappointed" after hearing the bell signaling an error, he said, "but I was glad that I did my best."
Read more by Maria Recio in today's Star-Telegram.
UPDATE: 2:30 p.m.
Mark will win a $500 gift card for being in the semifinals. The champion will win a $30,000 cash prize, a trophy and other awards.
Here are some fun facts about the 278 students competing in this year's national contest:
- 69 percent of the 2012 contestants attend public schools
- 1 speller in the 2012 contest is six years old
- 30 percent of the 2012 contestants are in the eighth grade
- 51 percent of the 2012 contestants are girls, the rest are boys
UPDATE 1:25 p.m.
In a tweet from @ScrippsBee, Mark has been eliminated. He spelled "himation" incorrectly in round six of the National Spelling Bee.
That's a rectangular cloth draped over the left shoulder and worn in ancient Greece.
No Texas students appear to be in the championship finals tonight.
Original post:
National Harbour, Md. _ Arlington speller Mark De Los Santos advanced in the fourth round Thursday morning in the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee, correctly spelling "cochineal," a red dyestuff made of the dried bodies of small red insects.
De Los Santos, an eighth grader at Holy Rosary Catholic School, is one of three Texas spellers left in bee after the 4th round. Also still competing: Chetan Reddy of Plano and Abigail Spitzer of El Paso.
Today's semifinals, which are being televised on ESPN2 are being held from 9 a.m. to noon. The championship finals are scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN tonight starting at 7 p.m. Track the spellers in this live map.
Check out a photo gallery on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's website from Wednesday's preliminary competition. And there are Associated Press photos posted from the event, too.
--Maria Recio, Star-Telegram Washington bureau chief. Via Jessamy Brown
Photo: Mark De Los Santos is No. 239 at the National Spelling Bee. Chuck Myers/MCT
Some stats mean nothing without context. 69 percent of spellers attend public schools. Yet about 90 percent of U.S. students overall attend public schools.
Posted by: LesleyPezley | June 01, 2012 at 04:31 PM