He correctly spelled “motherrumbung,” knew what “reparations” were, nailed “mormorando,” knew how to spell “sagum,” correctly defined what an “ideogram,” was, but “stalace” was his downfall in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Austin Elementary’s rising fifth grader, 10-year-old Sarv Dharavane tied for 22nd place in the competition, which matched his expectations for his first year of national competition.
He missed “stalace” – a central mass of cells in the root cap of some plants – instead spelling it “stallice.”
During a send-off celebration at Austin Elementary School in Dunwoody in May, Dharavane said he would be happy if he made it into the quarterfinals (which he did), but hoped for a place in the semi-finals. He said no matter what happened this year, he was ready to compete again.
“I’ve got four more chances, so I’d like to go on to win it all someday,” he said.
In the word fifth round vocabulary competition, Dharavane correctly defined an ideogram as “a symbol that represents a thing or an idea but not a particular word for it.”
The other contestant representing the Georgia Association of Educators, Matthew Baber, fell in the fourth round with the word “bicitaxi,” which is a combination bicycle/taxi.
Dharavane correctly spelled “sagum” in the fourth tier of competition on Wednesday, a round that was seeing more failure than success as the words became more difficult. Sagum is a cloak made of coarse wool “fastened usually on the right shoulder, and worn especially by Gauls, early Germans, and soldiers of ancient Rome,” according to the Miriam-Webster dictionary.
In the first round May 28, Dharavane and Babar sailed through, with Dharavane spelling “motherrumbung,” a brushy shrub that is found in Australia, and Babar nailing “trouvaille,” which is a lucky find or a windfall.
During his run to the state title, Dharavane was perfect – from “mischievous” to “dashiki.” Through 18 rounds, the 10-year-old beat 19 other students and was crowned the winner of the 63rd Annual Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) State Spelling Bee.
He, along with Baber, an eighth grader at Rising Star Middle School in Fayette County who was last year’s champion, represented Georgia in the national contest.
The finals will be broadcast on ION from 8 to 10 p.m. EST on May 30.
