Madison Spelling Champ Does it Again

Ron Seely:

Forget basketball.

The real action in Madison on Saturday was on a brightly lit stage at Monona Grove High School where 47 gutsy young people stared down the vagaries of the English language and slugged it out verbally in the Badger State Spelling Bee.

The ending matched the thrill of a double-overtime NCAA tournament basketball game. Madison's own Isabel Jacobson, of O'Keeffe Middle School, repeated as champion in a poised and confident performance. She won against a stalwart competitor, Andrew Grose, of Lake Country Academy in Sheboygan, in a nail-biting duel over the word "ineluctable."

With just the two spellers standing on a stage amid empty chairs late in the afternoon, Andrew, who had calmly vanquished such words as "narcissistic" and "glockenspiel" during the afternoon, mistakenly put the letter "i" where the "a" belongs in "ineluctable."

Isabel, with hardly a blink, spelled the word correctly and then awaited the final word that, if spelled correctly, would give her a memorable second straight state championship.

"Tutelary," said pronouncer Brad Williams.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 19, 2007 6:32 AM
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