By: Jonathan Starkey/THE NEWS JOURNAL

Posted: February 28, 2010

The first speller up at Delaware's state spelling bee Saturday also was the last one standing.

Pranay Malempati, an 11-year-old Newark resident representing Middletown's Alfred G. Waters Middle School, spelled "amenable" correctly to outlast Delaware's other top spellers and take the state bee crown.

He'll be representing the state from June 2-4 at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington.

Wearing the number "1" on a card hanging from his neck for identification, Pranay spelled "interrupt" correctly to open the competition about 10:15 a.m. Saturday at St. Mark's High School in Wilmington.

Pranay breezed through "ominous," "diphthong" and "dressage," among others, on his way to the win.

Asked how he plans to study for the national bee, Pranay said, "Pretty much, all the words are going to be in the dictionary. So I'll study out of there. I start at the beginning."

Josie Carlozzi, a sixth-grader from St. Catherine of Siena School in Wilmington, was the runner-up. She incorrectly substituted an "h" in the place of the "k" in "backstein" allowing Pranay to correctly tackle the word before moving on to "amenable" for the championship.

Fourth-grader Lily Allingham of Sanford School near Hockessin and eighth-grader Vasant Sarthi of Caravel Academy in Bear both finished third.

"It's really cool," Lily said of her bronze finish.

About 55 students participated in the bee, each taking his or her turn to step up to the microphone in an auditorium at St Mark's. Fourth- through eighth-graders shared the stage and spelled words from the same 500-word list provided by national bee officials, said Anne Marie Eanes, the chairwoman of the English department at St. Mark's, who organized the state bee.

Some spellers towered over the microphone. Others had to stand on their toes to reach.

Almost without exception, each time a word was read by the event's pronouncer Saturday, the speller picked up a pencil and scribbled it on a yellow pad before attempting to vocally spell the word.

Some 38 spellers made it to the second round, and 10 fell before the third. It took 11 rounds to name a winner.

"There were some hard words," Eanes said.

That's for sure. Words such as "insidious," "obstinate," "streusel" and "springbok" were among the 169 words it took to wrap up the 2010 state bee.

Included in a prize packet for Pranay was a dictionary, savings bond and an expenses-paid trip for him and a parent to Washington for the national bee. E.W. Scripps Co., which administers the national bee, is paying for the trip to Washington.

That travel money is not guaranteed for future winners, though, said Eanes, adding that she'll be on the hunt for a local sponsor.

Photograph: Pranay Malempati clears his first hurdle of correctly spelling "interrupt." The Newark boy won the competition by spelling "amenable." (The News Journal/WILLIAM BRETZGER)

Article reprinted courtesy of THE NEWS JOURNAL.