Born lands 4th place finish at national spelling bee

LYNN – The call of a huntsman’s bugle tripped up Marblehead’s Amber Born at the Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday but not until the 12th round, landing her in fourth place.”I didn’t expect to make it this far, it was nice,” she said during her exit interview after misspelling the word “hallali.”Considered the dark horse of the competition, this was the 14-year-old home schooled student’s fourth trip to the Bee, and the first time she or any former Item speller has made it to the final round and onto the national stage. In the last two years she placed 42nd. Her big jump in the standings caused commentators to peg her as one to be watched. It was, however, the favorite, Arvind Mahankali from Bayside Hills, N.Y., who would bring home the trophy and $30,000 from Scripps. Born will receive $3,000 for her efforts.Born put away words such as lethean, einkanter, aposematic and lansquenet before stumbling on a word with an “imitative origin,” which means it was derived from sounds, not an actual word.It wasn’t only her spelling prowess that caused Bee officials to take notice of her, however. Born, who hopes to one day have a career in comedy writing, also became known for her sense of humor. She continued the trend during her first turn at the microphone at the championship finals that were shown live on ESPN when she asked pronouncer Jacques Bailly if his sentence for “lethean” was funny.”Let’s try it,” he answered back.It was and she spelled it correctly.Born was one of 281 spellers in the Bee. She made it through the afternoon semifinal round that left 18 spellers on the stage but still had to wait to see if she would be among the final 11 who would go onto the championship round.She appeared genuinely surprised when her name was called but three hours later took the stage in stride. During her brief bio, which gave viewers a peek behind each speller, Born said the word “swag” best described her. In urban slang swag means the way one represents themselves, which in the case of coming in fourth at the Scripps National Spelling Bee would mean with grace and her trademark sense of humor.When asked what she had to sacrifice to get as far as she did Born said, “I didn’t watch TV much or hang out with my friends – sorry guys.”She also said the bee was “really fun.”And judging from the cheers she received during her time on and as she left the stage – so was she.Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].