Aliyah Alpert at the 2024 Arizona Spelling Bee, which she won. Photo: Courtesy of Arizona Educational Foundation
Prescott 13-year-old Aliyah Alpert — the last remaining Arizona speller in the Scripps National Spelling Bee — was eliminated in the semifinals last night.
The big picture: Alpert breezed through seven rounds of the bee, making quick work of words like "cire perdue" and "heresiology," but ultimately misspelled "omao."
She finished tied for ninth place.
Zoom in: Alpert, an eighth grade homeschool student, is a self-proclaimed "Lord of the Rings" nerd who dreams of being an avian and exotic pet veterinarian.
She competed in the 2022 National Spelling Bee, where she also tied for ninth.
Zoom out: Two other Arizona students made it to the big bee stage but were eliminated in earlier rounds.
Shynelle Joe of Window Rock, who likes to read and watch "ABC World News Tonight with David Muir," failed to correctly define "onus" in the second round.
Isabelle Garcia, a Kyrene del Pueblo Middle School seventh grader who plays in four band ensembles, left in the third round after omitting the second "e" in "regisseur."
