After several intense rounds of spelling, 278 children have been narrowed down to just nine who will advance to the final championship round tonight -- and one of the nine is a Parker, Colo. boy: 14-year-old Frank Cahill.
Frank, an 8th-grader from Ave Maria Catholic School in Parker, is the only Coloradan to make it to the finals of this year's contest after 13-year-old Eva Kitlen of Niwot was taken down by a written test and did not advance to the semifinals, 9News reported.
Frank correctly spelled "guilloche" -- a French word for a decorative engraving technique -- on Thursday morning, in the sixth semifinal round, sending him into the finals, according to The Denver Post.
The Scripps Spelling Bee website states that during Wednesday and Thursday's preliminary and semifinal rounds Frank correctly spelled:
- "frangible" -- easily broken
- "ephemeral" -- lasting a very short time
- "drosophila" -- a fly genus
- "cannelon"-- tubular or rolled pieces of pasta
Frank is clearly a great speller, but apparently his best school subject is math, his Scripps Spelling Bee bio states. He was a Colorado state finalist in the MATHCOUNTS National Competition in 2011 and 2012. Frank also plays violin and piano, is a 4.0 honor roll student, is a boy scout, a sculptor and participates in theatre where he has played lead roles in Dracula and Oliver Twist -- way to go, Frank!
The finals will not include the youngest speller in bee history, 6-year-old Lori Anne Madison of Lake Ridge, Va., who was eliminated during the preliminary rounds when she misspelled one of her two words -- "ingulvies" (the crop, or craw, of birds) -- and then fell short on her written test.
Watch Frank compete tonight at 8 p.m. when ESPN broadcasts the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.
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