Speller 200, Cole Shafer-Ray, walked into the last gathering of spellers tonight still studying. This time, it was a list of esoteric words.
“I hope for the best, I guess,” he said. “I’m nervous, very nervous. There’s a chance I might misspell a word on live TV, which would be pretty embarrassing.”
Cole is an eighth grader from Norman, Oklahoma who is at his third bee. Last year, he missed making the semifinals by one point.
“I decided it wasn’t going to happen again,” he said.
Cole got a perfect score on the preliminary test, and has been solid throughout the competition.
“I’m having a good time, I’m just nervous,” he said. “It’s one of the best weeks of my life, honestly.”
Cole misspelled "acritarch" from the championship list and was eliminated. Two spellers remain.