Long Beach 7th Grader Advances In National Spelling Bee Finals

LONG BEACH, CA – A seventh-grader from Long Beach advanced to the fifth round of the 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland, Thursday by correctly spelling polymorphous, an adjective meaning having many forms.

Miranda Medina, who attends Stanford Middle School, was among 41 spellers who advanced to the finals from the record field of 516 by scoring high enough on multiple-choice test with 13 spelling words and 13 vocabulary questions, and correctly spelling her second- and third-round words on stage at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.

The finals are limited to a maximum of 50 spellers. Spellers' scores are plotted on a chart beginning at 36. Spellers at each consecutive scoring level are added until no more than 50 spellers have been attained.

Medina correctly spelled nephelognosy, a noun meaning scientific observation of clouds, in Tuesday's second round, and laparotomy, a noun meaning surgical incision of the abdominal wall, in Wednesday's third round. The test is considered the bee's first round.

Miranda has said she would most like to meet composer Lin-Manuel Miranda to prove she knows every line of the musical Hamilton.

The spellers remaining in the competition as of 3 p.m. PDT will take a tiebreaker multiple-choice test of 12 spelling words and 12 vocabulary questions. The test was instituted last year in an effort to avoid the bee ending in a tie as it had the previous two years.

There is a limit of 25 consecutive rounds involving three or fewer spellers. At the end of a round when it is mathematically impossible for a single champion to emerge through oral spelling in subsequent rounds, the officials will disclose tiebreaker test scores of the spellers remaining in the competition.

The speller remaining in the competition with the highest tiebreaker test score will be declared champion.

The first segment of the finals will air on ESPN2 through 11 a.m. The concluding segment will begin at 5:30 p.m. and be shown on ESPN

A "play along" version of both segments will air on ESPNU. It gives viewers a one-in-four chance to pick the correct spelling of the given word and informational boxes highlighting the word's etymology, definition, intelligible pronunciation and part of speech.

This is the 25th year ESPN has carried the bee.

"The relationship with ESPN definitely increased the coolness factor for the bee," Valerie Miller, the bee's communications manager, told City News Service. "Spellers love to be on ESPN probably more than anything else."

The bee is limited to students in eighth grade or below, with this year's contestants ranging in age from 8 to 15 years old.

The winner will receive $40,000 from Scripps, which owns television stations and newspapers; $2,500 and a complete reference library from the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster; and $400 in reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica, including a 1768 Encyclopaedia Britannica replica set and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium, plus trips to Hollywood to appear on the ABC late-night program "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and New York City to appear on the syndicated morning talk show "Live with Kelly and Ryan."

The winner's school will receive a pizza party from Pizza Hut.

No speller from Los Angeles County has won the bee.

The initial field was 225 larger than last year's because of creation of the RSVBee program. The invitational program was created "to level the playing field for national finals qualification," Miller said.

"It is the first opportunity for students who live in unsponsored areas to advance to the national finals," Miller said. "It also creates a new path for champion spellers in competitive regions, where one speller is declared the winner from thousands of schools, to also earn a chance on the national stage."

City News Service; Image via Shutterstock