Sycamore School 8th grader, Nicky Ivan, made it into the finals in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee before being one of the final 20 eliminated. Of the record 291 spellers competing in this year's bee, 40 were named finalists after two preliminary rounds.
There were 19 spellers remaining when Ivan was eliminated on the word noyade (a mass drowning).
On the first day of competition at the national event, Nicholas correctly spelled the words "revulsive" and "anthroposophy" in the opening round.
"It's been draining for us at times," said Nicholas' father, Mircea Ivan to the Indianapolis Star while at the national competition. "It's actually pretty intense here." He admitted he was covering his ears by the time his son was spelling his last word. Along with sitting through hours of spelling Wednesday, Nicholas said he has been working toward this since he was 9.
"I'm excited and scared at the same time," he told The Star. "I'm just nervous because Round 4 is usually called the 'lawnmower round' because more than half the people got out in that round last year. I won't be mad if I lose because I already made it this far."
To qualify for nationals, Ivan won his local spelling bee by correctly spelling "attaché." He also correctly spelled "schottische," "decamerous," and "pickelhaube," to name a just a few.
Ivan started his path to the finals when he was crowned the champion of the North District Spelling Bee at St. Richard's. He went through over 20 rounds of spelling and vocabulary in that event. He advanced to the Regionals at IUPUI on March 5, where he captured the Scripps Spelling Bee Regional title, making it through more than 70 rounds to earn the win.