Of three Connecticut students participating in the bee, only Alexander made it past the first elimination round.

An infectious disease spread by bloodsucking insects got Trumbull seventh-grader Rebecca Eve Tobet, who stumbled on the spelling of Trypanosomiasis. Eighth-grader Jesse Kenneth Glanz of Eastford faltered on fremitus, the vibration felt by a hand placed on the chest, or a part of the body that vibrates during speech.

Alexander is one of 175 competitors to make it past the first round. The second round, a written test Wednesday afternoon, narrowed the field to 80. Alexander passed that, too.

On Thursday, she and the other 79 will begin to compete in four more rounds of inquisition-style spelling that will leave only one winner standing. Each competitor at the national level gets a prize, from $175 for those eliminated in the first round to $12,100 for the first-place winner.

Every spring, 251 contestants come to Washington for the event, all under the age of sixteen, in eighth grade or below, and already local or regional champions.

They come to Washington to face a phalanx of families, judges and reporters that would make most adults blench – or cringe, and spell words read to them by an impassive moderator. They can ask for a word to be repeated, a definition, or an etymology, but then they’re on their own. The contest is single elimination: no practice tries, no mistakes.

Some contestants, like Alexander, devote hours of study daily to dictionaries, books and the bee’s official word lists before daring to brave the glares of the 200 families of other contestants hoping for them to put an extra ‘g’ in armiger -- a person who carries a knight’s armor.

Phil Bernstein, Alexander’s father, said that Natalie knew every word in the word lists from memory. His fear for his daughter was that she would get “brain freeze” from the lights and the audience.

“This is a hell of a lot of pressure for these guys,” he said. “I’m nervous.”

Alexander participated in her first city spelling bee when she was 8, claiming the victory, in final elimination, over her own 11-year-old sister. Since then, she has participated three more times. It’s not just about winning, she says, it’s about “finishing what I’ve started.”

Alexander is home-schooled; her favorite subject is math, but she admitted she frequently “maxes out” her library card.

While some competitors have a fire in their belly for the number one spot, others are just happy with the experience. “I don’t expect to win,” said Eastford’s Glanz, who admitted he was intimidated by the competition. “There this one girl,” he said before the first round, “every time I see her, she’s carrying around this huge dictionary.

“I just want to get past the first round.”
For Tobet of Trumbull, the pressure of the competition had been too heavy for the trip to be any fun yet.

“I think parents understand that it’s an honor just to get here,” said Tobet’s mother, Monique. “The kids don’t really get that.”

But, with several days left in the capital, Tobet and Glanz both have time to see the sites, spend time with their families, and heave a suspiration,of assuagement.