Gainesville girl out of Bee

WASHINGTON — One point.

That’s all that separated Deborah Horton from making it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee semifinals Friday morning.

After spelling her second word of the day — psychalgia — correctly, the two-time Prince William Bee champion eyed the written test results on the wall projection, awaiting her fate along with the other 273 contestants.

The 14-year-old Gainesville homeschooler figured she had 20 correct answers and knew she would be getting six points for her perfect performance in the oral competition on Thursday.

That made 26, which turned out to be a point short. After not hearing her number 264 called, Deborah sank into her seat at the Grand Hyatt Independence Ballroom, crying.

Her father, Jeff Horton, who himself was an Arizona spelling bee state finalist as a child growing up in Phoenix, put his arm around his daughter and comforted her.

Moments later, her mother, Michelle Horton, walked over and hugged her, telling her she couldn’t have been any prouder of her performance.

“She worked really hard and she just barely missed out,” Jeff said. “She had it as her goal to get to the next level. I told her she did great just to get this far.”

As it turned out, it was the “easy” words that undid Deborah from making it further. She spelled the word penance “pennance,” a mistake she said she shouldn’t have made.

“I spelled it penance but I decided to change it because I thought it was totally wrong,” Deborah said.

Forty-eight lucky contestants will move on to Friday’s semifinals, which will be aired at 10 a.m. on ESPN. The finals will be at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Waynesboro’s 12-year-old Sarah Anne Allen, who is being sponsored by Media General’s The News-Virginian and The Daily Progress, was one of two Virginians who qualified.

The other was Tim Ruiter of Centreville, who is competing in his second straight Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Earlier Thursday, Deborah spelled the word “obreptitious” correctly, but not without several questions of the pronouncer. Deborah had less difficulty with the word “psychalgia,” which means physical pain increased or prolonged by mental, emotional, or behavioral factors.

After Deborah gave the correct answer, Michelle pumped her first, turned around and told a family friend, “I knew she knew that.”

Unfortunately, Deborah’s spelling journey — where she learned more than 25,000 words and studied sometimes up to six hours a day since preparing for the Prince William Bee in March — came to an abrupt end on Thursday.

“I had no clue [whether I scored high enough], but I thought I had a chance,” Deborah said after learning the results of the written test.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.