Student wins county spelling bee for 5th year
Published February 10, 2007
ANGLETON — Anjay Ajodha’s face lit up with a smile and he meekly let out a sigh when the judges told him he spelled “bodega” correctly.
The Pearland Junior High School South eighth-grader said expectations to win this year’s Brazoria County Spelling Bee at Angleton Intermediate School came naturally after claiming the main trophy for the past four years.
“But then again, the last couple of rounds were rough,” Ajodha said after Friday’s competition. “I knew I had a safety net because I knew that if I got it wrong, I was the last person and everyone would be called back.”
In the third round, only eight of 41 competitors remained, and Ajodha watched each of the seven students ahead of him misspelled a word.
Though Ajodha could have ended it then, he, too misspelled a word — dolcissimo — so the judges called the eight finalists back to their seats for another round.
By the eighth round, only Ajodha and fourth-grader Sydney Whynot of Rustic Oak Elementary in Pearland remained.
After Whynot misspelled affenpinscher, one of a breed of wiry toy dogs, Ajodha had to spell it and “bodega” to win the competition, which he did.
“It’s like riding the Dungeon Drop,” Ajodha said. “It gets better every time.”
But Whynot said she still was ecstatic to finish second because it was her first year to participate in the bee, which is open to students 9 to 14 years old.
“I was excited,” Whynot said. “I didn’t think I could spell like this.”
And Whynot deserved it, said her mother, Kim Whynot.
“I knew she was confident, but after I saw the ages, I got nervous,” Whynot said. “But she worked hard, and I knew she could do it.”
Words including caucus, bubonic, anemone and jonquil ousted more than a quarter of the students in the first round.
Ajodha and Whynot both advance to the regional spelling bee March 21 in Houston for a chance to compete in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Ajodha has moved on to the national competition three times, finishing 22nd out of 260 children last year, he said.
But each participant also took home a small trophy.
“Every one of you is already a winner, and no one can take that away from you,” Debbie Roberts, the eighth-grade language arts teacher at Angleton Intermediate School, told the students before the competition began.
Mena El-Sharkawi covers Angleton, Alvin and Danbury communities for The Facts. Contact her at (979) 849-8581.
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