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MORE PHOTOS: TAULOTO ACES ONSTAGE ROUNDS, FALLS SHORT FOR SEMI FINALS

Despite a strong performance in the preliminary rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Samoa News Territorial Spelling Bee champ Tauloto Tuiolemotu — while not eliminated in any rounds — did not make the cut in points for the semi finals.

 

The cut off point this year was 32 out of a possible 36 points.

 

Forty-two of the 281 spellers advanced, having tallied the most points in a formula that combined Wednesday's onstage rounds with a computer test that included a section on vocabulary for the first time.

 

Acing her onstage rounds, in round two Tauloto spelled ‘Eocene’ correctly and defined ‘mercurial’ as characterized by unpredictable changeableness, also correct.

 

In round three she spelled ‘plutonite’ correctly and was also correct in her definition of ‘a binturong’, which is an Asian prehensile-tailed catlike carnivorous mammal.

 

In these two rounds Tauloto had perfect scores garnering 12 points total.

 

Scripps has not released the computer scores from round one, made up of 24 words to spell and 24 words to define. Out of the 24 spelling words and definitions, 12 words in each category counted one point for each correct answer toward a speller's total score — and to make it even more heart stopping — spellers didn’t know which words on the list would count toward their scores. (Will update results and add photos as they become available later today.)

 

Speaking yesterday, Tauloto’s spelling coach, Maria Theresa Barja, a teacher at Leone Midkiff school where Tauloto is in the eighth grade, said they were both feeling a little disappointed and sad, but were looking forward to enjoying the final days of the Bee.

 

American Samoa, Samoa News, Leone Midkiff Elementary School and especially her proud parents, Tafale and Si’u Leatanu’u Tuiolemotu of Malaeloa Aitulagi congratulate Tauloto on a job well done. 

 

As a side note, Tauloto will be featured in a CNN special titled American Journey to air the end of June. Samoa News will update readers when a date is set.