LV speller gets it right, eliminated anyway

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, June 1, 2005 | 10:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sue Ann P. Yap of Las Vegas, 13, had a strategy for the moment when she finally reached the microphone for the first time at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

"I'm just going to try and focus and ask for the definition of the word, the origin, the root word -- ask all the questions," Yap said in a phone interview, as she tried to relax in her hotel room Tuesday night. "And then I'll just try to do the best I can."

But today Yap skipped the questions, a common delaying tactic used to buy time to think. Her word: "muliebral," an adjective relating to characteristics of women; feminine.

Yap didn't pause. She said the word and confidently spelled it right.

But in a cruel twist, Yap was eliminated, along with more than half the event's participants, by the end of round two. According to bee rules, a speller's score from the first round -- a 25-word written test taken this morning -- combined with the speller's first oral round performance determine whether the speller continues.

Yap's written test score wasn't known this morning, but it wasn't enough to keep her in the event.

Still, the soft-spoken Hyde Park Middle School seventh grader was smiling as she walked arm-in-arm with her mother away from the downtown Washington hotel ballroom where the bee is being held. She was a little disappointed, but also proud -- and relieved it was over, she said.

"I'm OK," said Yap, the only competitor from Nevada among 273 spellers from every state, ranging in age from nine to 14.

In an interview Tuesday she had said, "I just really want to do well for my school, and my state."

Yap has always been fascinated by words, her mother Susan said. Yap's parents gave their three daughters picture dictionaries at age two or three, Susan Yap said.

"As they got older, we just kept giving them bigger and bigger dictionaries," Susan Yap said.

It's been a long trip from the family's native Philippines to Las Vegas, where they have lived for five years, Susan Yap said. They used to watch the final rounds of the annual U.S. spelling bee, broadcast by sports cable network ESPN, on television. The family's three daughters grew up speaking English in the country where both Filipino and English are spoken.

"This is a dream beyond, beyond, beyond anything we imagined," said Susan Yap, a promotions staffer at the Fremont Casino. "We didn't think our children would be here. It's something we watched on TV. But now she's already a part of it."

Sue Ann Yap ate a light dinner of sushi Tuesday, so that she would have an appetite this morning. And she ate a big breakfast -- eggs, bacon, fruit and pastries -- fuel for a nerve-wracking day.

Like most of the ambitious students in the competition, Yap had prepared well. She had studied for at least an hour a day since the state competition in March, finishing other homework by 7 or 8 p.m. on weeknights -- even Fridays -- to clear her evenings and weekends for spelling drills. Her coaches, sisters Menchu, 22, and Tentzu, 23, quizzed her relentlessly. They picked words from a 400,000-word dictionary and pored over a 375-page "consolidated" word list provided by the bee.

Yap remembers well the word that won her the state competition and launched her on a trip to Washington this week. It was "jerkin," a short, close-fitting coat, often sleeveless.

Her mother remembers it, too. It was the moment Susan Yap realized that her then 12-year-old daughter was a much better speller than she.

"I had no idea what that word was," Susan Yap said. "I know Gherkin -- the cucumbers, the pickles."

Yap, who is celebrating her 13th birthday today, was the picture of calm, despite her nerves.

On stage in front of a buzzing crowd of nervous parents in a ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, she wore a blue placard around her neck identifying her as speller No. 144, and a pink good luck bracelet from a co-worker of her mother's.

For the students, the annual spelling event is a culmination of months of study. But there is also national glory and money at stake. The winner of the bee this year earns $28,000 in cash and college scholarship money, an encyclopedia set, a visit to the White House, and a number of media interviews.

The national spelling bee has drawn more national attention in recent years, in part because the finals of the competition are broadcast live nationally on ESPN Thursday.

The event was also the subject of a widely acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated 2003 documentary movie, "Spellbound," which told the story of eight spellers from widely different backgrounds and parts of the country, revealing a portrait of America. The movie also explored a national fascination with what some would consider an obscure talent for an unappreciated skill in the age of computer spell checkers.

This morning before the opening round students huddled with their parents for final words of advice.

Susan Yap said the national competition was just as nerve-wracking for the parents as the children. She has counseled her daughter that win or lose, there is a lot more to life than a spelling bee -- like the classroom finals that are waiting for her at school when she returns.

"I tell her this is a just a small part of life, that's all it is," Susan Yap said. "Of course, I'm not spelling. It's easier said than done."