Utahn Alan Mouritsen - like most 14-year-old boys - had never heard of the word "placket," which means a slip attached to a garment. Now he will never forget it.
The word tripped up Mouritsen in the fifth round of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee - just when he was about to enter the highest echelon of spellers and appear on national TV on ESPN-2 for the last rounds.He spelled it "plaquette," and thus finished 57th of the 247 spellers at the bee. Contestants came from each state, U.S. territories, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Department of Defense schools abroad.
"I made it harder than it was," lamented Mouritsen, a straight-A student at Grantsville Middle School in Tooele County.
"I had never heard of the word before. . . . Now I guess I won't ever forget it."
Still, Mouritsen, champion of the Deseret News Utah Spelling Bee, finished in the top 25 percent of spellers at the bee, which was designed to be especially tough this year.
Still, Mouritsen said he is considering a career where good spelling would be handy. "I'm thinking about journalism or public relations," he said.
During the competition, he correctly spelled the words "raillery," "antepenultimate," "heathen" and "pyrethrum."
Mouritsen won $75 in prize money and a $50 savings bond - in addition to the expense-paid trip for him and his mother to Washington.
First place in the contest was won by Justin Tylor Carroll, 14, of Wynne Ark., who in the 10th round correctly spelled "xanthosis," which means a discoloration of the skin. He beat Marjoy Lavery, 13, of Copley, Ohio, who misspelled "cappelletti," an Italian pasta.