By Matthew Reisen / Journal Staff Writer
For hours, they fought hard and, with the ding of the bell, dropped like flies — bested by words most people won’t hear in a lifetime. It ended in dramatic fashion Saturday as two eighth graders, barely tall enough to see over the microphone, went back and forth misspelling words until one of them got it right.
In the end, Keith Lee, 13, bested Joshua Bala, 14, for first place by correctly spelling puparium, a rigid outer shell formed from the larval skin that covers some pupae, and verbigerate, the action of repeating a word or sentence endlessly and meaninglessly.
It marked Lee’s second time earning the title of champion in the New Mexico State Spelling Bee, having also won in 2023.
“It’s just so many emotions… It just really showed to me how much I can achieve just by working hard,” Lee, a second-language English speaker from Albuquerque Academy, told the Journal.
Read the full article in the Albuquerque Journal.