12-year-old speller enjoys DC bee despite early exit

Mark D. Preston and Benjamin Grove

Thursday, May 28, 1998 | 10:25 a.m.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- One letter dashed the hopes of 12-year-old Jennifer Zimbal's quest Wednesday to bring the 1998 national spelling title home to Henderson.

Despite misspelling "estrepement" -- Jennifer spelled it "astrepement" -- the seventh-grade Greenspun Middle School student was all smiles after bowing out in the first round of the 71st Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.

"It was fun," Jennifer said, "but I was a little nervous."

Jennifer was the only Nevada pupil among the 250 sixth, seventh and eighth graders gathered for the national contest held Wednesday and today.

About 1,000 audience members hung on every letter called out by anxious students competing for a title that includes national bragging rights, a $10,000 prize, two U.S. Airways round-trip tickets and a set of Encyclopedia Britannica. Jennifer took home $50 and a commemorative watch.

"I am proud of her that she went this far," Jennifer's mother, Marlene, said. "I didn't even know some of these words, and I am an English major."

Jennifer said she didn't know estrepement, a noun meaning to spoil or waste; or a stripping of land by a tenant, causing loss to the owner.

It was her first word of the competition. She was the last of the 125 students in her group to get their first word.

"I didn't get nervous until they started to get close to my number," Jennifer said.

Jennifer said she didn't train for the event.

"It just takes up a lot of time," she said. "Besides, you still don't know what word you're going to get."

Jennifer, whose trip was sponsored by Donrey Media Group of Las Vegas, beat out 44 other students in March to win the state title in Reno.

She won the state contest on the word bailiff.

"I guessed," Jennifer said.

Greenspun reading teacher, Carole Ryland, said Jennifer was an ideal student, with low-key demeanor.

"She's kind of shy," Ryland said. "We had to tell her to smile when she won."

Jennifer, a voracious reader who prefers mysteries, in many ways is a typical pre-teen who likes computers, plays keyboard and listens to rythym and blues and rock music.

But unlike her peers, Jennifer also is the youngest member of 200 in the Southern Nevada Mensa Group, an international organization of people who score in the top 2 percent on IQ tests.

"She's a very bright little girl," local Mensa leader Ann Stewart said. "She knows other kids are going to ask her things like, 'Why didn't you know that? You're supposed to know everything.'"

Despite the pressure of the bee, Jennifer said she relishes a shot at coming back next year. Jennifer is touring Washington, D.C., today and Friday in her first trip to the nation's capital.

"You have a lot of time to relax," Jennifer said. "And it's free. Of course it was worth it."