I have to laugh - yes, I remember my first, bitter loss in a spelling bee.
It was in first grade. I was one of two contestants left. And I misspelled, "picnic" as "picnick." I lost to Susan Wilson.
I was so crushed I STILL remember the word and the classmate who beat me!
I think that's one reason that the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee has become such a phenomenon on ESPN - we've all participated in a bee at least once and we are AMAZED at what these kids can spell.
And this year's result was h-i-s-t-o-r-i-c.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee has crowned eight co-champions because they literally ran out of words.
Dr.Jacques Bailly said they "threw the dictionary” at those eight children, and the champions “showed the dictionary who was boss.” The kids: Rishik Gandhasri, Erin Howard, Saketh Sundar, Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali, Christopher Serrao and Rohan Raja spelled the final 47 words correctly in all.
As for the cash? While the Bee had originally planned to split the first- and second-place money in the event of a tie, this historic situation means that EACH speller was given the full $50,000 cash prize, in addition to a Scripps Cup.