Corona student wins Riverside County Spelling Bee

Ginny Wu, an eighth grader from Corona Fundamental Intermediate School, correctly spelled the word "traitorous" to win the 29th Annual Riverside County Spelling Bee March 29, 2006, at Martin Luther King High School.

She represented Riverside County at the 79th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 31 facing 250 champion spellers from around the country.

Twenty-five students from all Riverside County school districts except three -- Riverside Unified, Perris and Perris Union High -- and four private schools participated in this year’s event. Wu previously won the county event in 2004 and competed in the national event.

After 20 rounds, Wu outlasted Brandon Whitehead, a fourth-grader from Camino Real Elementary School in the Jurupa Unified School District, who finished second. He tripped on "banally," an adverb that describes something done in a common or trite manner.

Whitehead and third-place finisher Austin Pineda, a sixth-grader at Boulder Ridge Elementary in Romoland, will represent Riverside County at the state competition at Sonoma State University on May 20. The state competition is open only to students in fourth through sixth grades.

The Riverside County Spelling Bee is cosponsored by the Riverside County Office of Education and The Press-Enterprise.

For a complete list of participants, click here.