Spelling bee favorite who was runner-up last year is eliminated, stumped by ‘fustanella’

Spelling bee favorite knocked out in semifinal

WASHINGTON — Tim Ruiter studied some 20,000 note cards to prepare for the National Spelling Bee, only to be stumped by a skirt worn by men in the Balkans.

The 13-year-old from Centreville, Va. — and the runner-up at last year’s bee — was eliminated in the first round of the semifinals Friday morning when he misspelled “fustanella.”

“I’m feeling all right,” Tim said after two long hugs from his mother outside the ballroom where the competition is held. “I don’t have to work any more. I don’t have to worry about anything tonight.”

Forty-eight spellers began the day with the hope of being among the dozen or so to advance to the finals Friday night. Tim was one of 16 spellers who failed to get past the first semifinal round, a result so surprising that the other spellers and much of the audience gave him a standing ovation as he walked off the stage.

The word he was given was a doozy. Its roots went from Latin to Italian to Greek to Italian to English. He wasn’t sure if it was one that he had printed on his mammoth stash of note cards back home. He misspelled it “fustinella.”

“The Greeks must have messed it up,” he said.

Like the other favorites, Tim knew all along that one bad word could derail his chances at the winner’s trophy and the prizes that go along with it. Mother Vicki noted that, going into this year’s competition, he had already achieved the perfect conversation opener for the rest of his life: “I finished second at the National Spelling Bee.”

“He’s had an experience most people never have,” Vicki Ruiter said.

The two other returning finalists from last year had no trouble with their words in the first semifinal round. Neetu Chandak, 14, of Seneca Falls, N.Y., breezed through “sederunt,” and Anamika Veeramani, 14, of North Royalton, Ohio, rattled off the letters of “osteomyelitis.”

The week began with 273 spellers from across the U.S. and countries as distant as Ghana and New Zealand. They were reduced to 48 through a written test Wednesday and two oral rounds Thursday.

The bee continued to display its newfound funny bone. Only at a spelling bee could one hear sentences like these: “Lauren gently informed her father that the exploding fist bump had fallen out of consuetude” and “The phillumenist had a hard time obtaining fire insurance on his storage unit.”

A consuetude is an established custom, while a phillumenist is a matchbook collector.

Also staying alive was Sonia Schlesinger from Tokyo, who turned 14 Friday and was greeted with “Happy birthday” from the bee’s word pronouncer Jacques Bailly and a round of applause from the audience. She appeared absolutely stumped by the legal term “muniments” — pronouncing it many times and asking twice for it to be used in a sentence. When she spelled it correctly, her mouth flew open, she clenched both fists and high-fived her way back to her seat.

Sonia represented Washington, D.C., last year and moved to Japan in January when he father was transferred to a new job. Officials initially thought she had become the first person to represent two countries at the bee, but Tasha Bartch also did so in the 1990s.

Also acing her word was the only speller from Canada, which didn’t send its usual large contingent this year because of cutbacks stemming from the recession. Laura Newcombe, 11, of Toronto, confidently spelled “thalassian” — a sea tortoise.