Minutes after hoisting her firstplace trophy for the Chattanooga Times Free Press Regional Spelling Bee, Jasper Middle School eighth-grader Danielle Sahud breathed deeply and handed the cup of water she was holding to her mother.
“Hold this,” she told her mother, Betty-Jane Sahud.
Then she jumped up and down around the stage at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Roland Hayes Concert Hall.
Danielle said her win was “amazing and psychotic and unbelievable.” She will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.
Danielle was one of 85 registered participants in Saturday’s spelling bee, which lasted 16 rounds and included words such as “witloof,” “azimuth” and “zeitgeber.”
Her winning word was “denigratory,” which she said she didn’t have to guess.
Danielle said she knew all the other words, too. Her mom made sure of that.
“My mom is the spelling Nazi,” Danielle said.
Still, Mrs. Sahud said one word did worry her: “precocious.”
“You hesitated on that one,” she told her daughter.
On almost every other word, Danielle spelled the words as quickly as she could get the letters out. “It just seems better to get it over with,” she said. Times Free Press President Jason Taylor presented Danielle with her trophy and a check for $500. “These kids are great ambassadors for how education can be fun,” Mr. Taylor said.
Spencer Early, the second-place winner, missed the word “plasmalemma,” but said afterward he thought he knew how to spell it. He quickly ran to check and make sure with the judges.
The David Brainerd Christian School seventh-grader’s mother, Pam Early, said Spencer already has been to Washington once before. He competed in the National Spelling Bee after winning the regional bee as a fourthgrader.
Spencer said he would put his trophy on top of his bookshelf.
As for what she planned to do with hers, Danielle said she didn’t know. She and her father joked that it may become her mother’s final resting place since the last four years have been somewhat devoted to spelling.
“I might have to put my mom’s ashes in it,” Danielle said.
Mrs. Sahud said she isn’t worried about the national competition just yet.
“We’ll do that when the time comes,” she said.
As for their plans for the night, the Sahud family planned to celebrate. “We’re going out to eat,” said Danielle’s father, Steve.
BEE WORDS
Some words from the Chattanooga Times Free Press Regional Spelling Bee:
execration
assurgent
mynherr
hemerocallis
coati
edelweiss
tokamak
sassafras
ocarina
