‘Elegiacal:’ It Spells Success for Bee Champ

California contestants finished first and second in the National Spelling Bee on Thursday, with a 13-year-old girl from Carmichael taking top honors by spelling “elegiacal.

Rageshree Ramachandran claimed the first prize of $1,500 and a trophy and plaque in a dramatic duel with the other finalist, Victor Wang, 14, of Camarillo.

First, Rageshree and Victor each missed four words, and after misspelling “balmacaan”--a loose boxy overcoat--as “balmacan,” Victor asked in frustration, “Who makes up these words?”

Loud and sympathetic laughter filled the downtown hotel ballroom.

Maternal Body

Victor then quickly and easily spelled “ovoviviparous,” an adjective meaning producing eggs inside the maternal body that hatch upon extrusion.

Rageshree then spelled “mhometer,” an instrument for measuring conductants.

But they both missed “caoutchouc,” a substance obtained from the latex of tropical plants. Then, Victor misspelled “stertorous” as “sterturous.”

That word is an adjective that means characterized by a harsh snoring or gasping sound. Rageshree spelled the word correctly and then spelled “elegiacal,” an adjective used in a certain kind of poetry.

Rageshree, who was born in India and once lived in South Africa, placed 36th in the 1986 spelling bee. She is an eighth-grader.

Victor, who was 34th in the 1985 contest, is an eighth-grader at Monte Vista Intermediate School in Camarillo. He said he did not study for this year’s contest.

After the contest, he said with some puzzlement, “They kept giving us all these really weird words.”

He received $1,000 for his second-place finish.

Robin Covey, 12, of Harper Wood, Mich., was third and won $750.