“Dang, those Mexican food words always mess me up,” Amber Williams exclaimed Saturday afternoon after she was eliminated in the fifth round of the 2014 Wyoming State Spelling Bee for misspelling chalupa as “c-h-o-l-u-p-a.”
Because of an error in the final tabulation of the first three rounds of written competition, the Saratoga Middle/High School eighth grader almost missed the final oral competition. In order to qualify for the finals, the 69 students from all Wyoming counties had to receive an 80 percent or above. When the finalists were announced Amber’s name was not called, although she had earned a 90 percent ranking.
Amber’s mother, Kathy Williams, inquired about the discrepancy and indeed the Saratoga 13-year-old was one of the 23 spellers in the finals.
During the fifth round five spellers, including Amber in 11th place, were eliminated, leaving only 10 to compete for the state championship.
Saratoga school spelling coaches Shayley Love and Lori Trevillyan took several Saratoga students to the Carbon County spelling bee in Rawlins last month where Amber placed second to qualify for the state event.
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