Shayley Martin
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Floyd County spelling champion Shayley Martin incorrectly spelled “sussultatory” in round five of the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Because of the misspelling, the Floyd Elementary School seventh-grader did not advance to the final round of the competition, which was held Thursday evening.
Shayley was the Roanoke region’s spelling champion this spring for the third year in a row.
During the second and third rounds of the national competition Wednesday, she correctly spelled “Wiccan” and “truttaceous.” It was the first time Shayley made it to the semifinals.
She was among 281 spellers to compete in the bee, held in Oxon Hill, Md., but only 42 spellers advanced to the semifinals. Just 11 were in the finals.