Advertisement

Spelling Bee Champ Aces ‘Vivisepulture’

Share via
<i> Associated Press</i>

Wendy Guey of West Palm Beach, Fla., a four-time contender, won the 69th National Spelling Bee and the $5,000 first prize Thursday by spelling “vivisepulture” correctly. She defeated Nikki Dowdy of Houston, who missed “cervicorn.”

It was an all-girl final when the elimination got down to three spellers.

“I really wanted to win and I prayed a lot,” Wendy said. “I was just really lucky that I got all the words I knew.”

What will she do with her prize money?

“Spend it,” Wendy said.

Wendy is 12 years old and a seventh-grader at the Palm Beach County School of the Arts in West Palm Beach. She was sent as a contestant by the Palm Beach Post.

Advertisement

In the fourth round, spellers dropped out rapidly as the words got tougher. For the final, televised, round of the Scripps-Howard newspapers’ competition, 35 of the original 247 spellers remained.

Advertisement