WASHINGTON (KPLC) - A Southwest Louisiana student competed today at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
James Granger, 12, goes to Pinewood Elementary School in DeRidder. He was one of the kids put to the test at the 100th Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The competition is no cake walk. In order to compete, spellers must go through two preliminary rounds and take quizzes.
For those who advance past the preliminaries, a written spelling and vocabulary test awaits, and the top 100-plus finishers move on to the quarterfinals.
From there, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.
James made it through the first round by correctly spelling “philistine.”
We challenged some locals to give it a try, and they also nailed it.
“I was so nervous. I was like, ‘Oh, a 12-year-old’s gonna beat me,’” Baylee Dickerson said.
Unfortunately, James was eliminated in the second round when he defined “quixotic” as “sarcastic” instead of “idealistic,” but he made the most out of his trip to the capital.
James enjoys soccer, basketball, playing trombone and video games, especially Minecraft. His favorite subjects in school are science and social studies.
You can keep up with the competition results HERE.