Tulare County student among top 32 young spellers in the country
Tulare County middle school student, Bryce Melgar, soared through the preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and into the quarterfinals, competing against nearly 100 spellers on the big stage Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Bryce advanced Wednesday morning after spelling “amberina” correctly, joining 48 other students. In the second round, Bryce misspelled "retroussage" and was one of 17 spellers eliminated.
Overall, only 12 students moved on to the final round. Bryce finished 32nd overall — the highest of any of the 22 spellers sent to DC from Tulare County in the past.
“It boils down to one boy, one microphone, one word, one wait for the word given and then, one voice saying letters before an audience in the thousands,” said Nancy Bellin, Tulare County Office of Education special events coordinator. “The resilience and fortitude those moments require is unimaginable.”
The preliminary competition consisted of three rounds, where Bryce first successfully spelled “hawok,” then provided the right definition for the word “mitigative,” and ended by spelling “Crimea” correctly.
When Bryce competed in Visalia, he qualified for the preliminary round with “neolithic,” though throughout the day he also spelled “nuggets,” “pigeon,” “buffoonery,” “agitation,” and “clearance.”
The majority of words used during the bee are selected from the "Words of the Champions," a Scripps National Spelling Bee study resource.
The Ridgeview Middle School student was declared the 23rd annual Tulare County Spelling Championship winner on March 1 after going head-to-head for more than 20 rounds at Valley Strong Ballpark.
The Tulare County Spelling Bee is sponsored by the Visalia Times-Delta in coordination with TCOE.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee will name its winner Friday.
Lauren Jennings covers education and news for the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register. Follow her on Twitter @lolojennings. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tulare County student among top 32 young spellers in the country
