Southwest Florida’s contender in the 100th Scripps National Spelling Bee semifinals bowed out in semifinal competition Wednesday afternoon, stumbling during a vocabulary round.
Fourteen-year-old Nicasio David is an eighth grader at Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School and winner of the Lee County Spelling Bee.
During the quarterfinals Wednesday he successfully spelled tintinnabulary (Tin-Tinn-ab-u-lary), censer (sen-sir) and phosgene (foz-jean) to advance to the semifinals.
But, in Round 8, a vocabulary contest, David missed on blithesome, answering it meant oppressive. The definition of the word is “cheery.”
Nicasio’s Round 8 loss placed him tied for 36th place. Nicasio previously competed in 2024 and tied for 60th place.
A second Southwest Florida student also was competing. Thirteen-year-old Sophia Schoenrock, an eighth grader from Marco Island Charter Middle School, was representing Collier County Public Schools.
She fell in the first round Wednesday on the word zortzico, a Basque word referring to a song or dance in 5/8 time with a dotted rhythm.
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