SPELLERS ARE SPEECHLESS IN WORDPLAY.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

The word "equivalent" was 10-year-old Olivia Goodheart's undoing.

She spelled it wrong, erased it, spelled it right, then erased once more and made it wrong again.

"It just didn't look right," the Lorane Elementary fifth-grader said, her brow furrowed.

Turns out the very same word tripped up her rival, too - but Esther Ranjbar, also 10, missed only that word and one other, arbutus (which, in case you don't know, is a trailing plant of the heath family).

So with 28 out of 30 words correct, Esther, a fifth-grader at Eugene's Edgewood Elementary School, emerged the victor in the elementary-level division of Thursday's Lane County Spelling Contest, put on by the Lane Education Service District.

Perhaps it was her nerves of steel. Esther didn't break a sweat or bat an eye throughout, and said afterward there wasn't a single moment when she felt anxious.

"Compared to the spelling bee last year, the words were a lot easier," she said, referring to a traditional stand-up-on-stage-and-spell-out-loud bee she nearly won last year when she lived in California.

By design, Thursday's contest - they avoid the word "bee" - had little of the angst, thrill and heartbreak of that sort of spectacle. With calming classical music playing as they walked in, the students took seats at long tables with No. 2 pencils and paper at the ready.

"Everybody gets the same exact words here, and nobody has to get up in front of people," Robert Young, curriculum specialist for Lane ESD, said in his opening remarks.

The competition itself took all of 20 minutes. ESD employees at each of the three tables read slowly through a list of 30 words, using each in a sentence. They also read five "tie-breaker" words, although they turned out to be necessary only for the middle-school division, which had a three-way tie.

Among the toughest: "trichinosis," etymologist" and "verdigris" for the high schoolers, "archaeologists," "equable" and "scythe" for middle-schoolers.

Then the papers were whisked away for scoring. Eugene Public Library storyteller Jeff Defty told folk tales while the students waited.

The three champions - the others were Samantha Hintz of Creswell Middle School and Megan Lamb of Springfield High School - received trophies.

This was the fourth year of the contest, and the number of participants was similar to previous years, Young said. One noticeable difference, though, was the dearth of boys - just one at the elementary level, and two at the middle level. In previous years it's been closer to a 50/50 split.

Christopher Goes of Dorena Elementary School in Cottage Grove admitted he did feel a tad conspicuous.

"I was a little surprised," said Christopher, who had no theories on why more boys didn't make it to the competition. "I'll just take it as it comes, I guess."

Despite her calm demeanor, Esther was clearly pleased by her win. She flashed her mom, Sarah Ranjbar, and her teacher, Kathy North, a big smile.

Her mother said Esther reads a lot and has long been an amazing speller, but it's not in the genes.

"I'm a terrible speller," said Ranjbar, who is principal at Springfield's Guy Lee Elementary School.

Olivia, meanwhile, with 27 out of 30 words spelled right, was named the alternate. She'll fill in should Esther be unable to compete in the state championship, held in September at the Oregon State Fair.

"I was very, very nervous," she confessed.

"I feel really good about it. It's my first time, and getting alternate is really big for me."

CAPTION(S):

Olivia Goodheart, a fifth-grader, thinks during Thursday's Lane County Spelling Contest. Wayne Eastburn / The Register-Guard A confident Esther Ranjbar was the winner in the elementary division of Thursday's spelling contest.