Durham Spelling Champ Goes Far in National Bee

Durham’s Bettie Closs, the Lucas Middle School student who has won the Duke-sponsored Durham Spelling Bee three years in a row, took 17th place in the National Spelling Bee Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Her finish was the highest ever recorded by a winner of the Durham bee since Duke’s sponsorship revived the competition in 2010.

“We could not be prouder of Bettie,” said Lou Rollins, executive assistant in Duke’s Office of Durham and Regional Affairs, which sponsors the regional bee. “She exemplifies why Duke loves sponsoring the bee -- Bettie has a genuine love of learning. She studies hard but also has friends and hobbies. She's also gracious and delightful -- a great national ambassador for Duke and Durham.”

The competition began with 284 spellers. For the first time in the national bee, Closs made it through the preliminary rounds, including two difficult vocabulary quizzes, and joined 44 other spellers in the morning session televised on ESPN. 

She moved through several rounds in the morning, spelling words such as “wootz” and “flabelliform.” (Don’t bother looking them up; most of the words in the bee aren’t in the most common dictionaries.)

She made the final group of 17, but tripped up in the sixth round on the word “caliginous,” which means misty or dark. 

For the third year in a row, the national bee finished in a tie.  After 39 rounds, Jairam Hathwar of Corning, N.Y., and Nihar Janga of Houston were declared co-champions.

Closs has another year of eligibility for the national bee and will try again, although she will be hard pressed by her younger sister Hanna, who was runner-up to Bettie this year in the Durham bee.