Colorado 12-year-old Sylvie Lamontagne makes national #spellingbee finals http://t.co/ShatUqc46x pic.twitter.com/p9yp9zVxwo
Posted 4:20 p.m. | Updated 10:30 p.m.
Twelve-year-old Sylvie Lamontagne, of Lakewood, made it through to the finals of the National Spelling Bee on Thursday, and The Associated Press said she was a little surprised:
"Several people who I really expected to get their words right, missed their words," said Sylvie. "I felt bad for them. I felt happy for myself."
But Lamontane didn't go the distance. The competition ended in a tie for a second consecutive year. This year's winners are Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar. Vanya is the first sibling of a past champion to win. Her sister, Kavya, won in 2009. Gokul finished third last year.
Here are some memorable words and definitions from the semifinals of the 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee:
ROLLMOPS: Pickled fillets of herring rolled into a cylindrical shape, often around a savory filling. Monisha Mahadevan, 14, of Atlanta, got this wrong.
ARCOLOGY: A city intended to be contained in a single structure. Four-time participant Dylan O'Connor, 14, of Alexandria Bay, New York, got it wrong.
APIVOROUS: Bee-eating. Marcus Behling, 13, of Chandler, Arizona, got this one right after acknowledging his brother, who just graduated from high school as the valedictorian of his class.
GIBUS: A man's collapsible top hat, also called an opera hat. Snehaa Kumar, 12, of Folsom, California, went down to her last 30 seconds and let out a big sigh of relief after getting this one right. She went on to make the finals.
NARANJILLA: An herb cultivated in northern South America for its edible bright orange fruits. Dev Jaiswal, 13, of Louisville, Mississippi, spelled this right to make the finals.
CIMEX: A bedbug. The sample sentence: "Chloe burned her entire house down after finding a single cimex on her pillow." Smrithi Upadhyayula, 12, of Coppell, Texas, got this wrong.
RECHAUFFE: A dish of food that has been warmed over. Lipika Narisetti, 12, of Hilliard, Ohio, got this wrong.
And here's a quick profile of Sylvie posted a couple of days ago by KMGH-TV.
