BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
LAKE BUTLER— Union County’s spelling champion Sam Evans misspelled “remanence” in the third round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, tying him for 89th place in the national competition, along with the other 46 spellers eliminated in the third round.
Union school district officials allowed Evans to compete in the Lake Butler spelling bee after the home-schooled student moved from South Florida to St. Johns County and discovered that his new home county had already held its spelling bee.
After winning the Union County bee, Evans won the regional competition in Jacksonville, allowing him to compete in the national bee, held from May 30 to June 2 in Washington.
After getting through the first two rounds by spelling “betony” in Round 1 and correctly answering the question: “What does a phonetician study?” in Round 2, Evans incorrectly spelled “remanence” as “reminance” in the third round.
Evans told judges a phonetician studies sounds made in speech to advance out of the second round.
The word that tripped him up in the following round is a noun used in physics, defined as the ability of a material to retain magnetization, equal to the magnetic flux density of the material after the removal of the magnetizing field.
Two hundred, thirty-four students competed in the event, with 14-year-old San Antonio native Harini Logan winning the competition.
