Oceanside student wins Hofstra spelling bee

The word was "mordacious" -- biting or given to biting, from the Latin -- and 10-year-old Dean Creedon had never seen it before he spelled it correctly to take the 2012 Hofstra Long Island Regional Scripps Spelling Bee crown.

During 15 rounds Sunday, Dean, an Oceanside fifth-grader from Oak School No. 3, outlasted Lillian Horne and 103 more of the best spellers Long Island schools had to offer.

As the contest went into its fourth hour -- the judges uttering a merciless procession of words rooted in Urdu or Norse -- that "got harder and harder," recalled Dean, his 1 1/2 hours of daily practice notwithstanding.

It got harder, too, for Shawn Creedon, Dean's dad an attorney who lost in the finals of this contest's predecessor in 1984 on the word "tardily." He coached his son this year, reviewing lists of up to 500 words a day.

"It's nerve-racking," he said. "You can't control it. It's up to him and you don't want him to be disappointed."

He was proud of his son for winning but prouder still that Dean had thrown himself so totally into the contest.

At that level of investment, Shawn Creedon said, "if you don't succeed, there's no safety net, and you can't make an excuse. It's not something that most people do; it can be very intimidating."

Out in the crowd, two-time champ Zachary Zagorski, 16, who won in seventh and eighth grades in 2008 and 2009 at Oceanside Middle School and now as a high school junior competes in Mathletes, said he had come back just to watch this test of will. "It's an opportunity for people who aren't as athletic as their friends or as talented in other departments to show off that being smart is cool," he said.

Zagorski pumped his fist when his fellow Oceanside resident won. As champion, Dean was awarded a dictionary and a $100 savings bond, among other prizes, and will represent the region at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.

Dean said he planned to take off "today and tomorrow, but that's it" before returning to his practice regimen.

Lillian, 11, a fifth-grader from Academy Street Elementary School in Bayport, said she was "a little bit disappointed, but not really." She planned to take a break, too, and maybe return next year. In the meantime, she plays basketball and has recently become fascinated by the Chinese language and culture, said her parents, Angela and Patrick Horne.

"Enjoy Washington," the Hornes said to the Creedons.

"She's a tremendous competitor," the Creedons replied.

Other final words of the spelling bee

With definitions by Merriam-Webster

megahertz: a unit of frequency equal to 1 million hertz, abbreviated MHz

rogatory: seeking information; specifically, authorized to examine witnesses or ascertain facts

googol: the figure 1 followed by 100 zeros

ascetic: practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline

temerity: unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger or opposition; rashness, recklessness