Updated at 2 p.m. March 15, 2016
In the midst of “flu season,” it was the word “phlegm” that won the 47th annual San Diego Union-Tribune Countywide Spelling Bee at the San Diego Hall of Champions in Balboa Park.
Ella Peters, a seventh-grader at Notre Dame Academy in Carmel Valley, beat more than 100 other middle school-ages students Tuesday when she correctly spelled the word for the thick mucus secreted in the respiratory passages.
Peters will represent San Diego at the national event in Washington, D.C., in May.
What a word to win on! Congrats to Ella Peters of Notre Dame Academy, winner of the #SDBee due to her ability to spell… “phlegm.”
— SD County Ofc of Ed (@SanDiegoCOE) March 15, 2016
Last year, Oona Flood of Earl Warren Middle School in Solana Beach won the San Diego competition by correctly spelling “fuliginous,” the adjective meaning “sooty” or “dusky.” Oona was eliminated in the national Spelling Bee before reaching the semifinals.
In 2012, Snigdha Nandipati of Francis Parker School in Linda Vista won the national competition.
David Hay, an adjunct research associate teaching Shakespeare and dramatic literature at the University of San Diego, served as the “bee master” for the 35th and final year.
— City News Service
Congrats to Notre Dame Academy’s Ella Peters for winning Spelling Bee! Jeremiah Saguin is runner up @10News 4 & 5PM pic.twitter.com/4tUpZuUtAN
— Anne State (@annestate) March 15, 2016
