'Tumultuary' stumps Rusk's super speller
BY LELAND ACKER STAFF WRITER

Paige Penn of Rusk anxiously awaits her next turn during the Cherokee County Spelling Bee. Paige won third place at the regional spelling bee on March 17.

Paige Penn's trip to the regional Dallas Morning News/ESPN spelling bee in Carrollton on March 17 was not in vain. The Rusk Junior High eighth-grader won third place in the bee.

Rusk Junior High Principal John Burkhalter had nothing but praise for Paige's performance.

"She beat some tough spellers," he said. "She's really smart."

The regional spelling bee featured 30 spellers from various counties in the state of Texas.

Paige lasted eight rounds, before being eliminated by misspelling the word "tumultuary."

"I thought the pronouncer said 'chumultuary,' so I missed it because of the 'ch,'" Paige said, adding that the list of words in the regional spelling bee was harder than those at the county spelling bee.

"We started with alfalfa, then phenomenon," she said. "I spelled contrapuntal."

Paige said another word called out at the bee was Khe Sanh.

"They went several rounds after I left," she said. "They would ask questions such as the origin of the word, alternate pronunciations and asked to have the word repeated several times."

Paige said she was excited to participate in the regional spelling bee, which was held at the TWL studios in Carrollton.

"They had a background with different letters and there were a bunch of people in the spill-over room."

Paige said the audience was kept in the spillover room and was able to watch the competition via television. When Paige was called upon to spell a word, the cameras would show her mother's reaction.

"My mom was on TV eight times," she added. "(Winning third) is cool, I guess. I wish I would have gotten first so I could go to Washington."

Mr. Burkhalter pointed out the first place winner is the reigning champion from last year.

Paige is a member of the Rusk Junior High band, a cross country runner and a library aide. Debbie Miller is her mentor.

Paige is also enrolled in the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, which is a collegeprep program for junior high students.

She is also in the giftedtalented program.

Paige said when she finishes her education, she would like to be a frog biologist, or a pastry chef.

She has set a goal of being valedictorian of her class and hopes to attend the University of Texas.