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Riverside County Spelling Bee ends in epic tie
After three-and-a-half hours and an unprecedented 13-round speller’s duel between the last two survivors in the contest, judges declared the 34th Annual Riverside County Spelling Bee to have ended in a tie on Wednesday, March 23.
Raymond Galloway, an eighth-grader at Vista Verde Middle School in Val Verde USD, came away the big winner. He will represent Riverside County at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the Washington, D.C., area in June 1 and 2. Raymond, who tied for second in last year’s Riverside County Bee, has been competing in the event since he was in the fifth grade.
This year, Raymond wound up in a first-place tie with Eanna Mejia, who attends Corona Ranch Elementary School. Raymond will advance to the Washington contest under rules established by the E.W. Scripps media corporation, which conducts the Scripps National Bee.
Eanna, as the highest-finishing elementary school student, will be one of two Riverside County representatives at the California Spelling Bee April l6 in Stockton. Citra Benhar, a fifth-grader at Susan B. Coombs Intermediate School in Banning USD, will be the county’s other representative at State.
The other top overall finishers in Riverside County Bee were Preston Carroll, an eighth-grader at Palm Desert Charter School, Desert Sands USD; and Marcos Rubalcava, an eighth-grader at Cahuilla Desert Academy, Coachella Valley USD.
Thirty competitors from districts and private schools across Riverside County took part in the County Bee at the Moreno Valley Conference Center. Attrition in the single-elimination contest was slow through the initial rounds. But as words grew increasingly difficult, the field began to thin. Twenty students were left after Round 4; just 15 were still on stage after Round 5.
Only Raymond and Eanna remained by Round 18. Each was challenged repeatedly with words from the tough “Confidential List,” like sequacity and impuissant, and neither could gain advantage. Judges finally called the match a draw after what they said was the longest one-on-one showdown in memory.
Rules for the Scripps National Spelling Bee specify that only schools which pay a national entry fee can qualify to send a representative to Washington. Val Verde USD had paid those fees; Corona-Norco USD opted not to. The Press-Enterprise will help underwrite Raymond Galloway’s trip to nationals. The Riverside County Office of Education, as organizers and co-sponsors of the County Bee, will underwrite the county’s two entrants in the State competition.
The Riverside County Bee was witnessed by some 150 spectators, plus an Internet audience of more than 5,000, watching a live webcast from The Press-Enterprise newspaper, co-sponsors of the Riverside County Bee.
For information contact:
Rick Peoples
Telephone: (951) 826-6642
Fax: (951) 826-6199
rpeoples@rcoe.us
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