‘obsecration’ leads to victory - Orange County Register

EDUCATION

‘obsecration’ leads to victory

Anaheim seventh grader spells her way to represent OC in national bee

Sydney Tran, 13, of El Rancho Charter School in Anaheim, won the 62nd annual Orange County Spelling Bee, which took place Saturday in Costa Mesa. She will represent O.C. at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in late May. Photos by Steven Georges

Aden Nunes of Fairmount Schools in San Juan Capistrano is seen during the fourth round of the spelling bee. He finished second.

Everett Lin of Rancho San Joaquin Middle School in Irvine finished third in the bee.

Image

By Heather McRea

hmcrea@scng.com

With the correct spelling of obsecration, Orange County has a top speller for 2025.

Students representing schools from around the county battled it out in several rounds Saturday morning at the Orange County Department of Education headquarters in Costa Mesa, but with the right combination of consonants and vowels, Sydney Tran won her place in the Scripps National Spelling Bee this May.

Tran, 13, is a seventh grader at El Rancho Charter School in the Orange Unified School District.

Aden Nunes, a seventh grader from the San Juan Capistrano campus of the Fairmont Schools, spelled his way to second place, going several rounds with Tran before going out on par excellence.

Everett Lin of Rancho San Joaquin Middle School in the Irvine Unified School District took third.

Tran will be representing Orange County in the 100th spelling of the national bee, which begins May 27 in Washington, D.C. Students can compete through the eighth grade.

And to save a trip to the dictionary, obsecration is “a supplicatory prayer mentioning in its appeal things or events held to be sacred.”