Morgan Sinclaire, an eighth grader at Sierra Crest Academy in Minden, said he didn't think he'd make it far in the state spelling bee in Las Vegas on Saturday.
"I thought I'd get shredded," said Morgan, who competed with 46 other students from around Nevada, including classmate Emily Rogers, a seventh grader at Sierra Crest.
Morgan passed through four rounds unscathed. In the fifth round, he forgot one 'c' in 'acquiescence.' However, the other contestants misspelled their words, and the competition was launched into a sixth round.
"The next word was 'Daliesque,'" said Morgan. "As in pertaining to the artist Salvador Dali."
Morgan said he was somewhat familiar with the surrealist before the competition, but spelled 'Dali' with an 'o' instead of an 'a.'
"One person wins, and everyone else loses one word, thinking, 'Why didn't I memorize that word?'" he said.
Despite the setback, Morgan placed fourth, garnering a trophy, a $20 gift certificate to Chili's Bar & Grill and two free movie tickets, which he used while still in Vegas.
He and Emily went to see "Penelope."
"The spelling bee was really nerve-wracking," said Emily, who missed an 'a' in 'egalitarian' and placed 28th. "But I liked the movie; it was really romantic."
Morgan disagreed.
"On a scale of one to 10, the movie was a four," he said.
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