Florida Girl Awarded 9th Place In 'Unfathomable' Spelling Bee

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — A Florida girl appeared to improbably finish second in the Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night as the eight spellers who bested 13-year-old Simone Kaplan fought to an "unfathomable" tie. Later, tournament officials said they had decided to give the Davie girl ninth place.

"What they do is they take the first top places even though they were all first," tournament spokeswoman Valerie Miller told Patch late Friday afternoon. "It still ended up being eight spellers ahead of her. So what they do is they make her then ninth place."

Kaplan was the only Floridian to make it to this year's final which produced a first-ever result of eight co-champions in the competition's storied 94-year history.

Each of the co-champions were to be awarded the first place prize of $50,000, according to competition officials. But there was no immediate announcement with respect to the second-place winner or subsequent winners, if any were to be named.

The co-champions are Rishik Gandhasri, Erin Howard, Saketh Sundar, Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali, Christopher Serrao and Rojan Raja.

The spelling bee website lists a $25,000 prize for second place, $15,000 prize for third place, $10,000 prize for fourth place, $5,000 prize for fifth place and $2,500 prize for sixth place.

Alice Liu of St. Louis, Missouri went out in the 14th round, which appeared to give her a third-place finish but officials said she would be awarded 10th place.

The tournament began with more than 500 spellers and only 50 of them made it to the first round of the finals that ended Thursday afternoon. Heading into the prime time broadcast on ESPN, just 16 finalists remained for the chance to become the 2019 spelling bee champion.

A seventh grader at St. Bonaventure Catholic School, Kaplan's exit came at the beginning of the 15th round when she stumbled over a noun that refers to a long-horned grasshopper. The grasshopper was described as primarily nocturnal with a strident mating call and able to exhibit mimicry and camouflage.

"T-E-T-T-O-G-O-N-I-I-D, tettogoniid," she offered incorrectly.

Her hopes were dashed with a single missed letter and a single strike of a desk bell as Jacques A. Bailly, the official pronouncer, replied with the correct spelling: "Tettigoniid is spelled T-E-T-T-I-G-O-N-I-I-D," he said to applause for the Floridian as Kaplan made her way to her parents.

Following the 17th round, Bailly announced there were only enough challenging words for three more rounds. He said anyone still standing after that would be declared a winner, or co-winner if more than one of the eight made it that far.

All eight made it.

At the start of Thursday's final, Kaplan was the second contestant to correctly spell her word, a noun referring to a worker, especially in the former U.S.S.R, whose production is consistently above average, and who is therefore awarded recognition and special privileges.

"S-T-A-K-H-A-N-O-V-I-T-E, stakhanovite," she replied confidently.

Next, she correctly spelled a word that referred to loss of the power to recognize or orient a body part due to a brain lesion.

"A-U-T-O-T-O-P-A-G-N-O-S-I-A, autotopagnosia," she said correctly.

In addition to her bubbly personality, Kaplan was known for wearing clothing adorned with images of bees. She said she didn't think the bees brought her good luck, only confidence.

"She has an unlimited amount of bee garments," Kaplan's mother confided in a television interview. "I would probably say upwards of five dozen different outfits with bees on it. I comb the universe looking for shoes. I try to find fabrics that match the shoes. So, the shoes do come first."

Kaplan easily handled her third word in the final, which referred to an abnormal condition caused by an absence, or functional deficiency of the thyroid gland.

"A-T-H-Y-R-E-O-S-I-S, athyreosis," she said.

Kaplan was one of only 14 contestants left by the end of the 10th round. She began the 12th round by exclaiming, "deep breaths." She would soon become one of only 11.

Her 12th round word was a noun from Scandinavia that referred to a spear armed with three or more barbed prongs for catching fish.

"L-E-I-S-T-E-R, leister," she responded correctly.

The 13th round brought a Chinese word that referred to a disease of citrus plants caused by bacteria and characterized especially by yellow mottling of the leaves. Kaplan initially thought the word referred to a citrus fruit, but she had the Chinese part figured correctly.

"I was close," she quipped to laughter.

"H-U-A-N-G-L-O-N-G-B-I-N-G, huanglongbing," Kaplan fired to advance to the 14th round as one of the final 10 spellers.

Next, she was greeted with a word that she correctly identified as using the manuals, which she described as pedals for hands, as a direction for organ music.

"Yeah," replied Bailly.

"M-A-N-U-A-L-I-T-E-R, manualiter," she spelled. Moments later she became one of the final nine contestants.

An ESPN announcer would later describe the eight-way tie as "unfathomable."

Even, the dictionary seemed impressed:

Kaplan previously competed in 2017 and tied for 189th place. Last year she tied for 10th place.

McKinney, Texas, resident Karthik Nemmani was crowned the spelling bee champion in 2018. The winning word was “koinonia,” which is defined as an “intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community.”

Kaplan's favorite word is "zyzzogeton" because it is fun to say and is the last word in "Merriam-Webster Unabridged."