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Third time's a charm for Janesville's top speller

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

Rose Beach, a seventh-grader at Edison Middle School in Janesville, concentrates Tuesday as she spells the word 'amarillo' to win the annual Janesville Spelling Bee.

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Daisy Toloza

JANESVILLE — This is a story about how Rose Beach turned defeat into triumph.

It's also a story of how talent might not be enough.

Rose was in fifth grade two years ago. She came in third in the Janesville Spelling Bee. Then last year she didn't even make it to the citywide bee. She remembers getting a ribbon for participating in her school bee. She gave it to a friend.

"I didn't want a stupid consolation prize," she said Tuesday, still obviously reliving the sting of the loss.

She still remembers the word she went down on: manumit.

She over-thought it, she said, and outsmarted herself.

"She got mad, and she started to study," said her father, Steve Beach. "You don't want to get her mad."

Rose channeled her anger into achieving her goal: Winning the city tournament.

Her father, a teacher and self-styled computer geek, wrote a program that quizzed Rose. He used 1,100 words from "Spell It," a publication of the national spelling bee.

"But she did all the work," said her mother, Becky Beach, a physician.

The program not only quizzed her with random selections, it recorded Rose's performance. She began studying in February and completed more than 4,000 practice attempts, her father said.

She even studied through the summer, although she needed some prodding, her father said.

But she was so determined that she refused to let her mother buy her a new bicycle. She was certain she would win the bicycle that Michael's Cycles awards each year's winner.

And she did.

Rose spelled "amarillo" to clinch the victory in front of a crowd of parents and other well wishers at the Janesville School District's central office, defeating the top spellers in fifth through eighth grades from 21 elementary, middle and religious schools.

Just the day before, she had gone through 150 words and missed none of them, Steve Beach said.

"Studying helps a lot," Rose said when asked for advice to future contestants. "And don't over-think the words, because they'll lose all resemblance to English."

Rose said she must have gotten her talent from her mother, because her father, for all his skills, is not a great speller.

Second-place finisher Daisy Toloza, by the way, also has talent. She learned the ABC's by herself at age 3, her mother recalled. She was spelling by age 4.

Daisy grew up with English, but the first language of her parents, Nerissa and Tony Toloza, was Tagalog, a Filipino language they still use at home, Nerissa said.

But even with that talent, Daisy worked at it. She studied word lists from her teacher.

"Persistence" and "indefatigability" weren't among the words at Tuesday's bee, but they would have fit right in.

Top finishers

These are the top eight winners of the 2009 Janesville Spelling Bee and their prizes. The top four are eligible to compete at the regional spelling bee, to be held in February at Milton High School.

-- First—Rose Beach, Edison Middle School, a $100 savings bond and a bicycle from Michael's Cycle. Rose also won the traveling trophy for her school.

-- Second—Daisy Toloza, Marshall Middle School, $100 savings bond.

-- Third—Elizabeth Schwartz, St. Matthew's Lutheran School, $75 savings bond.

-- Fourth—Sam Outhouse, Kennedy Elementary School, $50 savings bond.

-- Fifth—Ian Daly, Roosevelt Elementary School, $50 savings bond.

-- Sixth—Gabriella Roca, Van Buren Elementary School, $50 savings bond.

-- Seventh—Eric Edwardson, Van Buren Elementary School, $50 savings bond.

-- Eighth—Michael Ritchey, Harrison Elementary School, $50 savings bond.

The savings bonds and trophy are courtesy of The Janesville Gazette.