14 DAY TRIAL // Jackson County Spelling Bee organizers had to halt and reschedule the showdown of the contest after running out of words. The spelling bee came to an impasse when the two remaining students exhausted the entire word list.
The Kansas City annual spelling bee took place over the weekend at the Plaza Branch of the city's Public Library, with 25 contestants registered at the beginning of the contest. After 19 rounds, only two students managed to remain in the race for a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
After another 47 rounds, organizers were forced to declare a temporary tie because the two students spelled word after word without error until they exhausted the word list at the 66-round mark, as reported by The Star.
Sophia Hoffman, a fifth-grader at Highland Park Elementary, and Kush Sharma, a seventh-grader at Frontier School of Innovation, were the two contestants that used up all of the available words. After that, the local organizers gave them about 20 additional words which were picked up from the dictionary during the lunch break.
However, bee officials eventually decided to postpone the competition in order to prepare a new list of words and give the competitors fair chances.
“We didn't want to just go through the dictionary and give them more words. We feared that someone would get a word that was too easy while the other would get an extremely difficult word. We wanted to be a bit more calculated and neutral, and we wanted to give each an equal opportunity,” said Mary Olive Thompson, coordinator of Kansas City Public Library.
According to Thompson, the two kids were ready to continue, but everyone was tired, so they decided to halt the contest. This year's competition went on for 66 rounds, while most spelling contests don't exceed 20 rounds.
“The officials were fatigued. The kids weren't tired. They had endless energy and were doing an amazing job. […] Sophia and Kush's eyes were just bright and glowing. It was almost magical,” said Thompson, according to ABC News.
Among the most difficult words Kush and Sophia spelled correctly in the final rounds were “Scherzo,” “fantoccini,” “schadenfreude,” and “barukhzy.” Both said they would study hard for the rematch in order to win a place in the national bee.
“I'm looking forward to seeing how far Sophia can push me and how far my skills can go,” said Kush.
The rematch has been scheduled for March 8 and the winner will participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, which will take place in May.