BEEKMANTOWN — Leah Reni, a seventh-grade student from Beekmantown High School, made it all the way to National Harbor, Md., for the semifinals in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Reni took the titles of seventh grade champion and the region’s Grand Champion for the second year in a row back in March during the Regional Spelling Bee, securing her a spot at Nationals during Bee Week 2024.
WORDS FOR HERBS
She competed against 245 other spellers through three rounds during the preliminary competition. One champion per grade made it to the regional spelling bee, which was open to grades four through eight.
In round one, Reni spelled ‘miscible,’ which, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, means “capable of being mixed.”
Round two was a vocabulary round in which spellers were given a word to define instead of spell, the word for Reni was ‘fatuously,’ which according to Marriam-Webster’s Dictionary, means “complacently or inanely foolish.”
In round three, Reni spelled ‘tormentil,’ to move onto regionals.
Reni said the word ‘tormentil,’ came with some difficulty, given the amount of terms for herbs there are to study.
“The hardest was probably round three, ‘tormentil,’ which is a herb. It’s hard to remember the definitions for all of the herbs (because) there are so many,” she said.
REGIONAL ROUND
In the Regional Spelling Bee, Reni competed against 45 other spellers grades four through eight from 18 schools in 10 Essex and Clinton county districts.
Her word for round four was ‘astragal,’ which, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, means “a narrow half-round molding.”
In round five, another vocab round, the word she had to define was ‘quaff,’ once again securing her spot in the next round, the semifinals, where she competed against 46 other spellers.
This round included one of Reni’s favorite words. The word she had to define is featured in “The Raven,” by Edgar Allen Poe, a personal favorite for her of his stories.
“My favorite, was ‘quaff,’ which was in “The Raven,” by Edgar Allen Poe so I knew it,” she said.
Her final word was ‘dorippids,’ which she spelled, ‘duripids,’ and placed 22nd.
MAKING MEMORIES
Reni said she had a lot of fun during Bee week and the prerequisite spelling bees.
“I had fun, yes,” she said.
“Students from all 50 states were in the semifinals, so there were a lot of people to meet.”
As a speller, Reni was given a sort of Bee Week yearbook featuring all the other spellers, announcers, judges, previous champions and guests. She had the opportunity to meet with others and get their signatures to remember the time.
YEAR-ROUND PREPARATIONS
Preparing for the Bee requires a lot of studying.
“I study for about an hour every day, all year,” she said.
Spellers are given the lists of words to be used during the first three rounds, the first being out of 1,000 words from the champion list, the second round being out of 2,500 words and the third round is out of 500, which is released only three weeks prior.
Beyond that, Reni studies textbooks, dictionaries and reads as much as she can, taking note of any significant words, or words she just likes.
She felt “reasonably” nervous before the competition, but ultimately prepared.
Reni’s favorite word is ‘Humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa,’ or the Reef Triggerfish, the state fish of Hawaii.
“I think I saw it in a book of long words one day.”
Leah’s mother, Meghan Reni, said her daughter has a passion for words and for writing.
“She wrote a 50,000 word book in a month, for the NanoWriMo program,” she said.
“There was a junior program, which had a lower word count, but she wanted to go for the challenge.”
Meghan is very proud of her daughter and impressed by her talent.