Three young girls represented Arizona on the national stage at the longest-running spelling competition in the country.
"Very happy to hear all those people cheering on for me and rooting for me. So, I hope I can make it far," said Karen Opoku-Appoh, a 14-year-old spelling bee competitor from Marana.
Preliminary rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee took place Tuesday in Washington D.C.
"Wapiti... W-A-P-I-T-I," said Opoku-Appoh.
"Correct," responded one of the spelling bee officials.
The second round was multiple choice, on the meaning of various words.
"What does it mean to immolate?" asked a spelling bee official.
The third, another spelling round.
"C-Y-C-L-I-C-A-L... Cyclical," said Opoku-Appoh.
"That's correct," responded spelling bee officials.
Opoku-Appoh spoke to ABC15 over Zoom about her experience in the competition.
"I was kind of, like, nervous in the beginning. I really thought I wasn't going to make it past this round but I did," she added.
Opoku-Appoh is one of two Arizona students who advanced to the quarterfinals. She had been studying since December, two hours every day after school, to get to that point.
"There are like different languages in which the word comes from, like French, Italian, Latin. So, like, for example... Latin words, when you hear the sound 'f,' you would spell it with a 'ph,'" said Opoku-Appoh.
Twelve-year-old Opal Mishra, from Chandler, also advanced to the quarterfinals.
On Wednesday morning, Mishra was the only Arizona competitor still in the running, however, in the afternoon she was eliminated in the 6th round with the word feuillage.
Opoku-Appoh was eliminated in the fourth round of the competition.
The third Arizona competitor, 13-year-old Tazbah Spruhan of Fort Defiance, within the Navajo Nation, came up short earlier in the competition. But she says it's more than just a competition to her.
"The whole point of wearing my Navajo clothes is not only to just represent myself and my culture but also, I think to show people that we're still here," said Spruhan.
A teacher encouraged her to take on the challenge and now she plans to do the same for others.
"Show people on the reservation that spelling is something that we can do," said Spruhan.
