Tracy Press

Tracy students prove their worth with words during the state junior high spelling championship last weekend.

Two Tracy High School students made names for themselves at California State Junior High Spelling Bee Championship last weekend.

Tracy High ninth-grader Caitlin Dong spelled her way to seventh place, and fellow freshman Hector Sanchez tied for 18th place. The two competed against 57 seventh- through ninth-grade students from 30 counties.

Caitlin, 15, took first at the county competition in December to make it to the state competition. She’s competed in bees for the past five years and tied for seventh at state last year.

"It is a lot of studying, and it’s nerve-wracking to be up there," she said. "But it’s good to see your hard work pay off."

Her mother, Diane Dong, who acts as Caitlin’s coach, said the competition seemed even more relentless in this year’s state spelling bee.

"These kids were intense," Dong said.

After 113 rounds, six young spellers hadn’t missed any words, while Caitlin had only missed one.

The judges had to go off the study list the spellers were given in advance. Students were dismissed from the contest after they missed four words. Caitlin made it through 117 total rounds, and was out when she missed her fourth word, "heresy," a word that wasn’t on the study list. She spelled it "h-e-r-a-c-y."

"I was kind of guessing, so I wasn’t surprised when they marked it wrong," Caitlin said. "I still think I did pretty well."

Nine-year-old Rommel Bermejo spent the past five months browsing the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to prepare for the California State Elementary Spelling Bee Championship in Southern California on Saturday. The South/West Park Elementary School fourth-grader said he feels nervous, but ready.

"My friends are like, wow!" Rommel said of his knack for words. "But I tell them that I have to study really hard for the spelling bees."

Rommel, an outspoken kid, said he’d like to one day work as a chef.

"Just like I have to remember words," he explained, "I’d learn to remember recipes."

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written by Momoftwoteenageboys , May 14, 2008

Congratulations Caitlin.

Way to go!!!!

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written by Connie Anderson , May 17, 2008

California State Elementary Spelling Bee Championship in Southern California is in Rohnert Park (Sonoma County) California—not Southern California.

Connie Anderson
Coordinator