Spelling champ trips in Bee's 2nd round

Nisha Naik, the winner of this year's Jersey Journal Hudson County Spelling Bee, made it to the second round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., yesterday.

The sixth-grader at St. Anne's School in Jersey City was eliminated from the competition when she misspelled "camouflet" as C-A-M-A-F-L-A-Y.

Camouflet, derived from the French word meaning "affront," is a military term used to describe an artificial cavern created by an explosion, used to undermine a structure.

In round one of the bee, spellers participated in a written competition in which they were required to spell 25 words. Each speller automatically advanced to round two, an oral competition.

St. Anne's School spent the day nervously tracking Nisha's progress.

"We had our fingers crossed the whole time," said principal Marlene Bartram. "I think it is incredible that she got there and I am so proud of her. I was so depressed when she missed that word."