Scottsdale speller gets rare do-over during Scripps national bee

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Scottsdale seventh-grade student Max Greenspan on Tuesday became just the sixth competitor in the 92-year history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee to successfully challenge the judges and be reinstated to the contest.

But his victory was fleeting. Max did not make it out of the third round Tuesday, leaving just one student from the state – Window Rock eighth-grader Kelly Haven – still competing Wednesday. Kelly, however, did not advance to Thursday’s final round.

While 369 competitors spelled correctly in the third round, no more than 50 can reach the finals. The field gets pared down based on preliminary testing completed Monday.

Max, a 13-year-old from Cocopah Middle School, had to battle his way into the third round after judges buzzed him off stage while he was spelling “mot juste” – a French-derived expression for the exact, appropriate word.

“M-O-T-J-U-S-T …,” Max said into the microphone, pausing, when the judges booted him.

A clearly shaken Max said later that he did not understand why he was buzzed off stage when he still had well over a minute on the clock to finish spelling the word.

“I was only one letter away from spelling it correctly,” he said. “I get two minutes to spell the full word!”

Some in the audience tweeted about the judges’ quick hook, and Max’s mother, Julie Greenspan, said she was in shock because she knew her son knew the word and was just thinking about the last letter. As soon as she approached him on the sofa, where disqualified contestants go, he told her he hadn’t finished spelling the word.

They filed a complaint and Max was soon reinstated. But there was no question that he was disqualified after misspelling “pseudologist” – a term for a liar – in the third round.

“He had a great experience regardless of what happened and, if invited back, would absolutely come back,” Julie Greenspan said in a text message after Tuesday’s competition. “It’s an opportunity he wouldn’t want to miss.”

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