Mar 3, 2009 7:35 pm US/Eastern
Broward Kids Compete In Miami Herald Spelling Bee
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
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Kids wait their turn before the microphone at the 69th Annual Miami Herald Spelling Bee.
CBS
Broward County fourth and fifth graders from different schools across the county put their spelling skills to the test Tuesday morning for Miami Herald's annual spelling bee competition. The event was held at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale.
CBS4's Carey Codd and
Erika von Tiehl were on hand to introduce the morning and afternoon sessions.
The event begins with a 50 word written exam. The top 25 spellers are then tapped to move on to the oral exam where the words get substantially harder.
The spelling competition started with fairly easy words, but then the words started to get tricky and more complicated. Students went back and fourth with words such as "coyote" and "ambulance"
In the end, it came down to the winning word "obnoxious", a word Daniela Perez a fifth-grader from Little Flower Catholic School in Hollywood got correct. She walked away with a nice trophy and $100 check, the prize for her age group.
The middle-school age group winner was 14-year-old Vincent Medina. He won the 'bee' last year, and placed 25th at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Medina won the county 'bee' with the word "decastich."
Ali Alaoui won second place, and Christian Hernandez placed third.
Last month, hundreds of students competed in the Miami-Dade version of the 'bee'.
Fifth grader Casimir Lesprance won the younger age-group championship round after he correctly spelled "Pentapody".
After winning the 'bee', Lesprance admitted that he was nervous but had a secret. "I see it in front of my eyes, I spell it in my mind and then I say it into the microphone," Lesprance said.
Lesprance's father said his son has a strong work ethic. "He's a hardworking boy and I must say we prepared together for the school spelling bee, of course he was the champion, but Casimir prepared for this on his own," said George Lesprance.
The midde-school title went to Franchesca Cabal-Ugaz.
The Miami-Dade and Broward middle school winners of the 69th Annual Miami Herald Spelling Bee will win an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 24 through May 29, 2009.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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