COUNTYWIDE : ‘Gorgonize’ Stops Speller at 4th Place

A Thousand Oaks High School senior placed fourth in the California State High School Spelling Championships.

Competing against two other Ventura County high school students and about 70 others statewide in Pleasant Valley on Saturday, 17-year-old Jennifer Wang took fourth place, the highest ranking anyone in the county has achieved, said Teddi Morris, Wang’s coach and an English teacher at Oxnard High School.

Jessica Garcia, an Oxnard High sophomore, and Jeanette Ng, a Rio Mesa High freshman, were eliminated in preliminary rounds Saturday, Morris said. All three students had qualified for the state competition by winning their district bees and taking top honors at the county competition this month.

“They were all given a list of words to study, but the judges went off the list really early because everyone was doing so well,” Morris said. “Most who do well are avid readers and they come across these words in their reading.”

Wang struck out on “gorgonize,” meaning to petrify someone with a look.