Scappoose-area Scripps spelling champ falls short at national competition

It came down to the definition of "shellacking," unfortunately ending Scappoose-area student Rubina Wiedemer's pursuit of the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy.

In the semifinals Wednesday, May 29, Wiedemer correctly spelled the word “inesite,” which is a mineral consisting of a pale red hydrous manganese calcium silicate.

Poised at the microphone for Round 6, the first of the semifinals, she greeted spelling bee pronouncer Jacques Bailly with his favorite word (according to the Scripps website): "Howdy Dr. Bailly!"

But in Round 7 of the competition — one round before the finalists were named — Wiedemer made a miscalculation of the definition of shellacking, which means "a decisive or humiliating defeat."

Kavya Shivashankar, backup head judge, lauded the only Oregon representative of the national competition for her accomplishments and wished the young speller well on her future endeavors.

"Rubina, congratulations on your performance today," Sivashankar said. "... We know that you enjoy bird-watching and drawing manga characters and you'd like to be an author or an ornithologist, perhaps both. If you write a book about birds, I'm sure we will put it on our Bee bookshelf. I hope you had an incredible experience this time, and we know that everything you learned will take you very far."

With that, Wiedemer and four other competitors became tied for 17th place in the 2024 competition, ending their journeys.

Wiedemer, 14, lives just outside of Scappoose and is part of Fossil Charter School’s distance learning program. She earned her trip to the national competition, which is being held outside of Washington D.C., after grabbing the regional championship held March 25 at the University of Portland’s Buckley Center auditorium.

The Portland event featured 36 spellers from 36 local schools, representing six different counties.

The Portland regional Scripps competition was sponsored by Telemundo and MeTV Portland.

Eight spellers advanced to the finals after Round 8. The finals will be televised at 5 p.m. PT on KPXG Channel 22.