CIBORIUM KILLER WORD FOR CAPE GIRARDEAU SPELLER

Cape Girardeau speller Christina Van Nostrand missed ciborium by one letter in a killer-round 2 1/2 hours into the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Regional Spelling Bee Saturday. The spelling bee was held at the Art Museum in Forest Park.

Van Nostrand, a seventh-grader at L.J. Schultz School, represented the Southeast Missouri District. Sixty-five district champions from a 78-county area participated.

Saturday's contestants already had survived 16 division finals, where 935 school champions represented thousands of Missouri and Illinois schools in competition.

Ungenteel was the championship word for William Stoecker of Rolla 3 1/2 hours into the spelling bee. Jared Congiardo of Moberly finished second after missing repetitiously. Both advance to the 68th annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 28 through June 3.