Iowa’s two competitors in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. were both eliminated today by the written exam. Fourteen year old Benjamin Fallon of Dyersville and 11 year old Taryn Shaw of Oskaloosa failed to make it past the second round.
Taryn, a fifth-grader at Eddyville Elementary, was one of the youngest kids in the field of 286 spellers. Taryn says she can go to the bee three more years, "I’m disappointed about this year, but I’m really excited about my next three years." Taryn says she was tripped-up by some very difficult words on the exam.
Taryn missed words like Bewusstseinslage (bay-VOOHST-seins-lahg-eh), scytale (SIT-ul-ee), noesis (NOH-ee-sis), and syssarcosis (sis-sar-KOH-sis), "I was four points away from getting into (the third round)". Taryn says she spent a lot of time preparing for the bee.
"After I won the state bee on March 3rd, I think I studied an hour-and-a-half or two hours a day," Taryn says, "and if I missed some time, I would study for three hours on the weekend." This year’s championship round of the National Spelling Bee will be carried live on ABC-TV from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday night.