By KWMU
St. Louis, Mo. – After correctly spelling 'beccafico' this (Thursday) morning, St. Louis's representation in the National Spelling Bee used an 'e' where she should have used an 'i' in the word 'cyclazocine' in the sixth round and was eliminated.
Caroline Rouse, an 8th grader at Mary Institute-Country Day School, started the day as one of the remaining 59 spellers seeking the championship; 14 of them had been eliminated by the time Rouse stepped to the microphone for the first time.
Admitting "that's a new one" when hearing her first word of the day, Rouse eventually spelled 'beccafico' to perfection, which she then followed up with a fist pump and high-fives (a beccafico is a kind of songbird).
But in the sixth round, she spelled cyclazocine (a synthetic used to treat heroin or morphine addiction) incorrectly.
On Wednesday, she had correctly spelled rhubarb, gurney, and anadiplosis to advance to today's semi-finals.
"She was so distracted the last week of school that we had," said Rouse's math teacher and advisor, Joan Llufrio. "She would come into my Algebra class and we would be doing practice problems, and she would have her notebook with her, flipping through, looking at words."
Tonight's finals start at 7:00 and will air live on ABC.