WASHINGTON — A gray couch sat on the side.
Pulled back from the lights, it wasn't meant to be flashy. Placed on the left side of the Scripps National Spelling Bee stage, it was a stark contrast to the gold trophy cup that shined from the stage's right.
The couch needed to be there, but no one wanted to sit on it.
Sitting on what's known as the “crying couch” meant you spelled a word wrong, that your time was up, that your chance at the national title was gone. It was a place to wait for your parents. A place to absorb the shock. And, yeah, a place to cry.
The couch held 113 spellers Wednesday.
It held Rosie Shultz, a fifth-grader who pulled her hair back in a bow to compete in her second national bee. It held Akash Vukoti, who gained a standing ovation from the crowd when the competition's youngest speller at age 6 walked off the stage.
It held Raleigh County's Katie Mills, the Gazette-Mail's regional spelling bee winner. It held Asritha Sure of Morgantown. It held Wheeling-native Mariana AlKhouri.
The three misspelled their words in round three of preliminaries of the national bee held at the Gaylord National Resort Conference Center, near Washington D.C., Wednesday.
For the competition's third round, judges could pick any word from Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary. The words they pulled for West Virginia's three female spellers weren't part of the girls' personal dictionaries.
“Yeah, I didn't know it,” Mills said. “Honestly, I probably should have gotten it.”
Mills said she knows that Latin words don't normally contain a “ph.” But she was nervous. And tired. And those lights were hot on her skin.
So she tried it anyway. For the word “profligacy,” Mills offered the judges “prophiligacy.”
AlKhouri and Sure had similar experiences. AlKhouri offered “disenturd” for “disinterred.”
Sure's never heard of “metastasize” before. She asked the judges several times to repeat the word. But that didn't help. She spelled “matastacize.”
West Virginia's two male spellers, Lucas Mooney and Andrew Gould, didn't have to sit on the gray couch. They knew their words. Mooney had “repetitiously” and Gould “demiurge.”
Despite spelling their words correctly in round three, Mooney and Gould will not continue to the bee's finals. They didn't earn enough points to qualify.
To qualify for today's finals rounds, spellers had to score a 27 or higher. The students' scores came from the preliminaries' three rounds of testing.
The first round was a written test, which was given Tuesday morning. The multiple choice test asked students to spell 12 obscure words and provide the definition for 14 more. Rounds two and three of preliminaries — both oral spelling tests — were held Wednesday.
If students misspelled their word in rounds two or three, they were immediately eliminated. West Virginia's five spellers flew through round two Wednesday morning. In round two, West Virginia's spellers handled “urubu,” “flimflammer,” “gudgeon,” “matamata” and “submersible” with confidence.
“Urubu” was a word Mills has studied many times. But “profligacy?” Not so much.
Mills was just one of 80 spellers that round three sent to the couch. She kept a smile as she turned from the microphone and glided to the cushions. Through the crowd, Debbi Mills bobbed between the seats as she made her way to her middle child.
They embraced.
After the competition ended Wednesday, Mills didn't look sad. She said she'll treasure what she received from her first bee — her only bee.
She got to make new friends. She got to see the United States Capitol. She got to meet her first senator.
After her family returned to their hotel room Tuesday evening after a day of sightseeing, Mills' father, Joe, turned to Mills and asked, “For all these years of work that you've put in here, all this work to have this day … would you make that trade again? Would you put in all the work for this day?”
“Oh yea,” she said. “I'd make that trade.”
Mills' appearance in the national bee is sponsored by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the West Virginia Automobile and Truck Dealers Association, Sheetz and WSAZ.
Reach Anna Patrick at anna.patrick@wvgazettemail.com or 304-348-4881.