And at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., 48 semi-finalists are resting up (or you never know, some of them may still be studying) for tomorrow's big event, the National Spelling Bee Final.
For the 48 semifinalists, it's a great opportunity, not only cuz you're on ESPN, you're gonna represent your hometown, you get justification for all the hard work you've been put in, all of that stuff's well and good, but also for this very important reason: this is THE best year to be a semifinalist because it's such a wide-open field. As I chronicled in the last post, there's really no odds-on favorite, and this is actually (gasp) a down year for contestants. No offense to the spellers, who are all really, really talented and diligent and could all beat me at a spelling bee despite at least a 10-year age difference, but the resumes of this year's contestsants are just as impressive collectively as years past. Here's why:
The reluctant favorite this year is Neetu Chandak, the Guru's pick to win it all this year, but really in other years she'd be more of a top 4 or 5 candidate, someone who has a decent shot at winning should an odds-on favorite fall. Usually there's a 5-year returner who's been to the ABC final round twice, had a couple top 20 finishes (or 3), and is really acknowledged as having enough experience to win it this year. If you look at the winners of the bee the last few years, the championship has been just as much a lifetime achievement award as it is a coronation for that year's performance. 2009, Kavya Shivashankar had a 10th place, 7th place, and 4th place finish before winning it all. 2008, Sameer Mishra, 4th-year returner who had a couple top 25 finishes under his belt. 2006, Kerry Close, FIVE-time returner who'd been on national TV numerous times. The list goes on. And even beyond the champions, there have been several really strong candidates with long resumes (Tia Thomas, Matthew Evans, Samir Patel, come to mind) as top-dog favorites every year.
Even last year, there were 4 four-time returners. This year, there's one. And she's the odds-on favorite. If you look at all of the "top contenders" that people like, there's really not one who stands out as having that "it" resume. We've got Tim Ruiter, who has a 2nd place finish from last year, but no experience before that, came out of nowhere. Anamika Veeramani, also came out of nowhere for 5th last year. Out of the 3-year returners, none have made it to the ABC finals. Brandon Whitehead at least has semifinal experience in both 2008 and 2009.
Other really legit contendors are a bit too young or inexperienced: Nicholas Rushlow and Laura Newcombe, both a year away. And Rahul Malayappan.
And that's the thing about experience: It's all well and good to do a written test and do well on it, but I would imagine nothing compares to actually being in front of a national audience and getting a word you don't know...that's a lot of pressure, and you need to be more mature (8th grader preferably) or inexperienced to handle it.
So anyway, that's why it's SUCH an open field this year, and really, most of the 48 semi-finalists have at least a decent chance of winning the whole thing. What a concept. Since Darren Rovell did a pretty lackluster job of picking just THREE (pretty ambitious, if you ask me) to cover his streak of picking championships, I think he's gonna see his streak get broken this year. It's definitely possible.
Here's some of the intriguing semifinalists we'll be watching intently starting tomorrow morning:
7. Esther Park: wants to meet Hilary Clinton and is from Arkansas. Cool. Semifinal experience from last year.
19. Sarah Gadre likes Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship. Hopefully that'll prevent her from "falling out" of the competition.
27. Brian King's the local Boy Scout and tomorrow's round will probably seem like a 100-mile hike for him.
61. The Illinois contingent this year includes Gina Liu, who wants to be a lawyer.....lemme know if you still want that in a few years, Gina.
88. Owayne Rodney: a SIXTH-GRADER from Jamaica!!! Does this mean they're gonna cultivate some talent to make a multi-year run??? Hasn't happened yet.
89. Sonia Schlesinger: Very intriguing story, she moved to Japan and is representating that country....we'll probably get an ESPN or ABC montage.
110. Shivani Angappan: 10-year-old alert!!!
151. Hannah Evans: Sister of one of the best spellers never to win a championship tries to carve her own place in spelling bee history.
202. Connor Abale: Entertaining guy from last year who insists on wearing a bee-style shirt (he's doing it again this year!)
207. Neel Mehta: National Arts League Champion.
214. Julianna Canabal-Rodriguez: Pride of Puerto Rico in her 3rd try at the bee and only a 7th grader. Could hear her name a lot soon.
237. Aditya Chemudupaty: One of Darren Rovell's picks to win it all. Don't blame him, looks dangerous.
Alright, just a small sampling of the diverse field we have going into tomorrow. Good luck to everyone, and may we see an entertaining, competitve, and enthralling spelling bee!!!!!!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
2 comments:
Don't forget to look to Anvita Mishra, representing the Sacramento Bee!
She's competed against Josephine Kao in the regional spelling bee for the past 3 years, so though it's her first year it isn't as if she has experience under her belt already.
...I miss the bee.
STREAK...NOT BROKEN. Hardest year ever to call the Bee. Where's the praise?
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