Deer Path Student Participates in Sectional Spelling Bee

The in-depth recap below comes from Abby Wellman's parents. 

2013 Spelling Bee Sectional Contest

Summary:
-       45 contestants
-       Remaining 4 contestants will move on to Sectional Round 2
 
After 3 hours, Abby made it to the final 7th round with 7 kids remaining.
Four kids spelled their words correctly and three did not.
 
Abby’s Words:
1. decoy
2. keelhaul
3. doctrinaire
4. pickelhaube
5. patently
6. Cambodian
7. dervish,  Abby spelled it as durvish
 
 
Commentary:

Forty-five kids representing local elementary and middle schools ranging from grades 4 thru 8.  
The kids did an amazing job and should be proud of their accomplishment.
 
Round #1,
Abby started off well correctly spelling decoy despite experiencing a bout of hiccups in the first round.
 
Round #2,
Nail biter, “keelhaul” was Abby's second round word.  Without hesitation, she nails it!
 
Round #3,
Laced with words ranging “bambino” to “chimichanga”, Abby continued on and correctly spelled the word “doctrinaire”.
 
Fourth #4,
The boy before Abby received the word “shrieval”.  “How many letters does that word have?", he asked.  Best question of the night!  It also turned out the be the most controversial word of the night due to poor segmenting.  Judges had to listen to the recording 4 times.  Abby’s word was “Pickelhaube”, we wait with anxiety.  Abby to our surprise spells it correctly.  We heard a low whisper in the room, “wow that was a tough one”.
 
Round #5,
Down to 14 kids.  Abby’s word was “patently”.  She spells it correctly and continues on.
 
Round #6,
Now 9:15 pm and down to 11 kids.
Abby receives the word “Cambodian” and spells it correctly.
 
Round #7,
Three hours past and down to 7 kids; it turns out to be the final round.  Abby received the word “dervish”.  Sadly she spelled it incorrectly.  Two other contestants misspelled their words leaving 4 contests remaining, ending the first round of Sectionals.
 
Later, Abby mentioned that the word “dervish” was taken from the dictionary and did not come from the “2013 Spell It” word list.  She was very disappointed that she could not continue on and represent DPM.  We could not be more proud of her and what she accomplished.  She definitely went out on a high note!