Feb. 20, 2009 — After 31 rounds, Diana Cardenas came out the winner of the 2009 St. Croix District Spelling Bee Friday. She went head to head in the final eight rounds with Kianna E. Watson, last year's St. Croix winner.
“I can't believe how many rounds they went before the words tripped them up,” said Sarah Mahurt, director of curriculum, assessment and technology at the Department of Education.
As Cardenas, an eighth grader at Good Hope School, concentrated on the words she appeared to focus above everyone's head on a point at the back of the Alfredo Andrews Elementary School auditorium. Watson's style of concentration was different as she gripped her blue plaid skirt deep in thought, then quickly spelled out the words.
The auditorium, half full with parents, coaches, teachers and classmates of the contestants, was exceptionally quiet except for the pronouncers and the spellers. Watson's classmates from Claude O. Markoe Elementary School silently held up signs between rounds wishing her luck. After about 23 rounds, Watson could be heard sighing.
Correctly spelling "estuary," the winning and final word, Cardenas first rubbed her eyes then her face lit up with a huge smile.
“I was definitely very confident I would do well,” Cardenas said. “This is the third spelling bee I've placed in.” She said she studied everyday online with the Spell It Book and then she picked up the dictionary and randomly chose words to practice spelling.
Cardenas's spelling coach is Chantelle Green. She is the daughter of Ana Foster and Louis Torres.
“We are so thrilled she won,” said Raquel Cedano, acting headmaster at Good Hope School. “She worked really hard and she deserved it.”
Watson, a fifth grader, said she did a lot of studying on the Internet, in class and she practiced with her mom.
“I really wished it hadn't gone on so long because I was hungry and thirsty,” Watson said.
Cardenas, Watson, Raheem Knight, Kayla Ford, Roy Arcamo II, and Fatima Yusuf will go on to compete against St. Thomas and St. John's six best spellers in the Territorial Spelling Bee March 6 at Divi Carina Bay Beach Resort.
“They did very well in those last rounds,” said Anadia Andrews, coordinator of foreign languages at the Department of Education and spelling bee judge. “I was quite impressed.”
Twenty students from public and private schools took part in the spelling bee. The students all received a gift bag with eight books, and the top six also got an electronic dictionary.
The spelling bee was sponsored by the Department of Education, V.I. Daily News, Scholastic Inc., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson Caribbean, Diane Russell, Wayne Joseph and Calabash Real Estate.
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