Local spelling champ bows out with humor

Staff
Published: May 29, 2008

From the early hours of the morning Thursday, the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., resembled a mass school gymnasium as 288 national and international children aged 8 to 14 bustled around with nervous parents in tow preparing to embark on the preliminary spelling round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Tension was running high, but humor was not lost on a few contenders who managed to retain their personalities in the glare of the spotlight and before an audience of hundreds.

“Wow” contestant number 25 Easun Arunachalam said of his given word—hydrotropism. “That’s a really good word.”

And Woodbridge’s own speller, 12-year-old Graham Park Middle School student Marie Mach, made sure that her stage presence did not go unnoticed.

“Can you put that in a song?” she asked pronouncer Jacques A. Bailly when he gave her the word “espousal” to spell.

“Sorry, I don’t have a very good singing voice,” Bailly responsed.

Although Mach did not get a chance to go further, she and her father were in high spirits as they filed out of the Independence ballroom where the contest was held.

“I was proud of her before she even went in there,” Robert Mach says.

“It was a lot of pressure to get up there and I was so nervous when I had to spell my word. I was number 276 so I had a long time to wait. I had a lot of fun, but I’m also glad it’s over,” Marie says.

After a lunch break, Mach was going to return to view the 99 contestants that made it through to the quarterfinals.

“I’d like to stay around for a little while and cheer my friends on,” she says.

Although the contest is finished for Mach, she doesn’t plan on permanently hanging up her spelling bee hat. She will be back next year, she says.

Contestants successfully completing the quarter finals will compete in the semifinals Friday at 11am. The championship finals will then take place at 8 p.m. later that day.

The Bee is being televised live on ESPN cable Friday afternoon and the finals will be broadcast on the ABC Friday night.