Sixth-grader takes L.A. County spelling bee with ‘thrombosis’
An Arcadia sixth-grader won the Los Angeles County Office of Education Spelling Bee this week in just over an hour with the word “thrombosis.”
Kai Morita, a First Avenue Middle School student, beat out 24 other contestants in fourth through sixth grade at the Almansor Court Conference Center in Alhambra on Wednesday evening.
First Avenue Middle is part of the Arcadia Unified School District.
In second place was Daniel Ozaraga, a sixth-grader at Santa Fe Elementary School in the Baldwin Park Unified School District. Finishing third was sixth-grader Ryan Factora, from Stevenson Elementary in the Newhall School District.
Kai and Daniel will advance to the California State Elementary Spelling Bee slated for April 26 in Stockton.
The contestants were spelling champions at their respective schools. The annual spelling bee follows the “one-and-done” rules used at the state level, which means a “sudden death” elimination for a student on the first misspelled word.
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