and the winner is :
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(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)2004 SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE
'Autochthonous' spells victory for Hoosier
South Bend teen wins national title
"I used my placard as a security blanket or something," said David Tidmarsh, 14, who won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Besides hiding behind it, the eighth-grader used the card to trace words with his finger to figure out their spelling.
June 4, 2004
WASHINGTON -- When South Bend's David Tidmarsh realized he was one word away from winning the 77th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, he started to cry.
And the tears kept flowing Thursday after he nervously but correctly spelled "autochthonous" to become this year's champion.
Asked minutes later whether he was glad it was all over, the 14-year-old had to wipe his eyes again.
"It's kind of sad," David said, choking up. "I won't be able to be in any more spelling bees."
David wasn't planning on becoming the first Hoosier since 1928 to earn $17,000 in prize money and the giant loving cup that he struggled to hold up on stage. His goal had been to do better than his 16th-place finish in last year's competition.
David, an eighth-grader at Edison Intermediate Center in South Bend, said he started studying as soon as he got home from last year's bee and has been spelling three to four hours a day during the week and five to six hours on weekends. In general, eighth grade is the last year in which students can compete in the spelling bee.
David spent a few months culling every page of Webster's Third New International Dictionary for challenging words, reducing the tome to about 10,000 he would work on.
Handed "autochthonous" -- which means indigenous -- in Round 15, David was pretty sure he recognized it from that study list. Still, he spelled it carefully, taking such deep breaths between each letter that he almost sounded like he was hyperventilating, as the audience of hundreds hung on every letter.
"He's got it!" one audience member exclaimed as David approached the end.
When the judges told David he was correct, David immediately turned to shake hands with the second-place finisher, Akshay Buddiga, of Colorado, who missed "schwarmerei," a German word for unbridled enthusiasm.
Then David got a hug from his mother, an administrator at St. Mary's College, who had been watching from the side of the stage at the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel.
"I love you," Janice Pilarski whispered into her son's ear.
Jay Tidmarsh, who teaches law at the University of Notre Dame, said he wasn't nervous during the competition once his son had surpassed his goal. Perhaps it helped that their 4-year-old daughter, whom he had to chase inside and outside the hotel's cavernous ballroom during the two days of oral competition, distracted Tidmarsh.
"I didn't actually see a lot of the tournament," he said.
Tidmarsh predicted that his son, a polite, quiet child, would have to adjust to his new fame. All the major networks were hoping to snag interviews with David, including NBC's "Today," which wanted to fly him to New York on Thursday night so he could appear on the show today.
"He won't be able to be anonymous, which is a role I think he prefers," Tidmarsh said. "He likes to be not noticed. He likes to do his work. He likes to do it well. But he doesn't care much for honors or accolades."
Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, the 1979 champion who is the color commentator for ESPN's bee broadcast, said winning "completely changed" her life.
"My family jokes that it was my 15 minutes of fame that never stopped," she said. "It probably does that for every winner."
"I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by all the attention," David acknowledged to the mob of reporters that descended on him.
He dealt with his jitters during the competition by at times hiding his face behind the yellow numbered placard that hung around his neck. He also used the back of the placard to trace words with his finger to figure out their spelling.
"I used my placard as a security blanket or something," he explained.
Nerves got to Akshay in Round Six, and the Colorado boy fainted in front of the microphone. The 13-year-old popped back up and correctly spelled "alopecoid." But he was given a stool to sit on for all of the remaining rounds.
Akshay's brother was the 2002 champion, and Akshay would have been the first sibling of a champion to win if he had beaten David.
After David, Indianapolis eighth-grader Trevor Leslie ranked the highest of the 14 Hoosier spellers who were among the 265 contestants.
Trevor was among 26 spellers who survived until the sixth round. That tied him for 15th place.
Winning words
Here's a look at five words that South Bend's David Tidmarsh spelled correctly to win the 77th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee:
Autochthonous
Indigenous, native, formed or originating in the place where found.
Sumpsimus
Adherence to using the correct term.
Sophrosyne
Restraint over one's own impulses.
Arete
The sum of qualities that make up good character.
Gaminerie
To be impudent.
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