![San Diego County bee spells fun for two La Jolla students](https://neoshare.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/San-Diego-County-bee-spells-fun-for-two-La-Jolla-students-750x420.jpeg)
When they first entered the San Diego Countywide Spelling Bee, two La Jolla students thought it was a fun way to spend a Thursday.
Jake Leonhardt and Jason Tran, both 13, were among 60 who took part in the 52nd Annual County Bee on March 17. The event is hosted by the San Diego Union-Tribune in conjunction with the San Diego County Office of Education and sponsored by San Diego County Credit Union.
Contestants had 30 seconds to spell each word and were eliminated for incorrect spelling.
The competition was held virtually, with students being asked to keep their hands clasped in front of the camera to ward off suspicion of cheating.
Spelling out words like “regicide” and “praxis,” Jake Leonhardt, a seventh grader at All Hallows Academy in La Jolla, was eliminated in the fourth round, leaving 17 other contestants, by the word “julienne.”
Jason Tran, an eighth-grader at The Preuss School on the UC San Diego campus in La Jolla, bowed in round 3 with “adversaria” after misspelling “regiment” and “sacrament” earlier.
Jake Leonhardt, 13, of La Jolla’s All Hallows Academy will compete online in the San Diego Countywide Spelling Bee on March 17.
The winner after more than six hours and 11 rounds of competition was Mihir Konkapaka, a sixth-grader from the Poway Unified School District’s virtual Connect Academy, after spelling “sabreur” correctly.
Mihir now continues on an all-expenses-paid trip to compete in the Washington, D.C. area this summer in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The national bee was founded in 1925 when nine newspapers teamed up to present it.
“It was pretty cool to be part of something like [the county bee], especially with a lot of kids,” Jake said.
He said it was a good experience watching the other players.
The county bee is open to students in grades six through eight who attend a public or private school in San Diego County and have won their school’s bee.
Jake said he’d never done anything like this before, but “decided it was fun to do and I wanted to do it.”
“I’ve always been a good speller,” he added.
Jason said he wanted to go in “for an experience”. He was nervous all the time, had never competed in such a big competition before, but still had fun, he said.
Jake said the virtual component was “pretty well set up. … I don’t know that virtual was challenging versus personal.”
“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said.
— San Diego Union-Tribune writer Kristen Taketa contributed to this report.