Queen of the bee

Ariel Kokoricha, of Clovis, won the New Mexico Spelling Bee on Saturday and will advance to the national competition. The 10-year-old correctly spelled “legato” to win the bee. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

It took 14 exceptionally long rounds to get to “legato,” the word that 10-year-old Ariel Kokoricha, of Clovis, spelled correctly to win the New Mexico Spelling Bee on Saturday.

The word was incidentally descriptive of Kokoricha’s performance: in a smooth and connected manner.

The Clovis Christian School fifth-grader, who last year placed third in the state bee, knew she was going to win when she heard the word. She already knew it.

Those multiple hours of studying every day (except Sundays, which the precocious young girl calls her Sabbath) paid off, said her mother, Oyin Kokoricha.

“I mean I’ve never seen such dedication. She just loves words,” Kokoricha said.

Ariel beat out 39 competitors from all over the state at the nearly four-hour competition at Sandia Prep on Saturday. Her victory means she’ll compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., on May 29-30. The trip will be sponsored by the Albuquerque Journal and Newspapers in Education.

Last year, Kokoricha came in third place in the state competition after faltering on the word “lenitive,” which means to soothe or alleviate pain. The first place winner last year was Jacob Hunter, then a seventh-grader from Santa Fe.

At the competition Saturday, Kokoricha was one of six returning students. She got there after winning the Curry County bee by spelling “strudel” correctly.

The rest of the students ranged in ages from 9 to 14 and qualified through either their district or county spelling bee.

Kokoricha edged out Anish Kumar, 12, who came in second place, and 14-year-old Benjamin Voter, who came in third. Both boys are from Santa Fe.

The win came after 14 rounds of words like “rapscallion,” “blitzkrieg,” “flexuosity” and “deglaciation.”

In the end, it was the misspellings of “discrete” and “phlox” that left Kokoricha, an aspiring doctor, artist and teacher, the last one standing.

The crowd by that time was enthralled with the competition, oohing and aahing as the students struggled through the final rounds. The students were required to correctly pronounce the words before spelling them, which lengthened the process. They were allowed to ask for definitions, word roots and examples of use in a sentence.

Prizes

First place: Trophy and trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 29-30, courtesy of the Albuquerque Journal and Newspapers in Education; a copy of Webster’s New Third International Dictionary, copyright 2002, and its addenda section, courtesy of Merriam-Webster; and the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, courtesy of Jay Sugarman.

Second place: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, courtesy of Merriam-Webster; and a subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica online, courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica.

Third and fourth place: A $50 American Express gift card, courtesy of the Albuquerque Journal and Newspapers in Education.

First through fifth place: A $50 American Express gift card, courtesy of the Albuquerque Journal and Newspapers in Education.

All other spellers: A $25 American Express gift card, a Franklin Merriam Webster Advanced Dictionary and Thesaurus with Spelling Correction (electronic version), courtesy of the Albuquerque Journal and Newspapers in Education.
— This article appeared on page B01 of the Albuquerque Journal