A First: Four-Way Tie In Solano Spelling Bee

For the first time in the 35-year history of the competition, there was a four-way tie in the Solano County Office of Education's Spelling Bee, held at the on Wednesday.

Each year students in grades fourth through sixth study their hearts out in hopes of advancing to first or second place, and winning a trophy almost as tall as they are.  This year, however, there was no second place winner, but rather, four children taking home a trophy, each of which had earned the title of first place.

“This is the first time this has happened,” said Ken Scarberry, Director of Youth Development. “We’ve always had just two winners."

The evening began with 38 students from 38 different schools throughout Solano County. Dan O Root Elementary fifth grader, Venera Chalize Mandanas competed in the event, but, unfortunately, did not advance beyond the second round. In fact, by the fourth round, only half of the students remained.

 Spellers were given words such as parent, correct and ambition to begin with. Words became more and more difficult, and by the fourth round the students were spelling words such as miscellaneous, cynical, and quixotic. The contestants gripped their podiums, their pens used to write out their words before spelling them for judges.

Often times an exhale of relief could be heard when a word was spelled correctly, from the student and the audience. By the tenth round, there were only seven students remaining; they were spelling words such as apiarist, ubiquitous, and onomatopoeia.

Jackie Wyard-Yates recalled how tough it was to stand in front of an audience of hundreds during the days she entered spelling be competitions. The St. Helena High School Junior, who won her first spelling bee when she was in third grade, reminisced during a speech she gave to encourage the young spellers.

“As soon as I got to the auditorium, I planned my escape routes,” she said.

Seating at the event was for 300 people, and almost all of the seats were filled. As the number of students began to dwindle down, so did the audience members. In the end, three students from Vallejo and one from Vacaville were spelling the toughest words judges could throw at them, until it was decided to award first place to each of the contestants: Louis Angelo Punzalan of St. Catherine of Siena, Vallejo; Alex Topp of Cooper Elementary, Vacaville; Sarina Chang of Glen Cove Elementary, Vallejo; and Tyrone Austria of Pennycook Elementary, Vallejo.

Only two students, Chang and Austria, will proceed to the California State Elementary Spelling Bee in Stockton on April 16. The two were left only after SCOE decided to amend the rules of the competition and removed aid of scratch paper to the spellers.

The Bee’s Spell Master for the night, Jon Unger, was amazed at the youngsters.

“They were spelling the hardest words we could give them,” said Unger.