Freshmen Face Off at the Queen’s Head

The Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub was filled with freshman last night at the first Annual Freshman Spelling Bee. With former Howard Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion George A. Thampy ’10 presiding as emcee, spellers and audience members gathered for a night of pizza bagels, french fries, and multisyllabic words.

The Freshman Dean’s Office-organized event was an intramural competition that attracted 22 freshman spellers who had the chance to bring 100 points and glory to their respective dorms. According to Thampy, the competition included words that were accessible to spelling neophytes and more obscure words intended to pose a challenge to more advanced spellers.

The competitors were of varying experience levels and spelling backgrounds. Some, like Tengbo Li ’12 of Grays Hall, had “a deep and irrevocable love for orthography.”

Others, like Ryan D. Smith ’12 of Pennypacker, “came for food and to have some food... [to] relive the glory days from elementary school.”

The mood was social and collegial as spectators cheered on friends and dormmates; Duc P. Luu ’12 of Thayer was greeted with a rousing “Quack, Quack, Quack” from his cheering squad as he took the stage to successfully spell the word “donnybrook.”

The words increased in obscurity and difficulty as the competition wore on, with more common words such as “retaliate” eventually giving way to lexicographical oddities such as “cummerbund,” which elicited giggles from the college-aged audience. Round One ended with all but one contestant still in play, but Round Two signaled the introduction of more difficult words.

At times the word difficulty seem to vary dramatically from contestant to contestant. One ousted speller highlighted this trend with the statement, “Are you serious? We went from shrapnel to Gethsemane?”

As the competition reached its later stages, the field was trimmed dramatically due to the appearance of words that not even Microsoft Word’s spellcheck could comprehend, such as fomites, skookum, and sialogogue. By this point, the number of contestants was reduced to four: Mass. Hall’s Athena L. Lao, Greenough’s Steven N. Maheshwary, Richard C. Alt of Matthews, and Pennypacker’s Ryan D. Smith.

All four contestants spelled their words incorrectly in the initial segment of the final round. Lao then spelled two words in a row correctly, ending the first annual Freshman Spelling Bee with a flawless spelling of “Planilla,” and netting 100 points for Mass. Hall in addition to $100 for herself. Alt, Smith, and Maheshwary tied for second place and will split the second place prizes for themselves and their respective dorms.

After offering high fives to her co-competitors and accepting her reward, Lao said of her victory, “I feel great, I used to do spelling bees in middle school so I was hoping that what I learned in middle school didn’t leave me. So I’m glad I was able to remember some of it.”