Controversy was abound in the moments following Friday night’s 63rdannual Times Herald Spelling Bee, but there would be no asterisk on the end result.

That’s just fine for Lauren Whitley, who can certainly do without seeing those pesky little punctuation marks anytime soon. Whitley, a seventh grader from East Norriton Middle School, was eliminated in the bee’s sixth round when she began to spell “asterisk” with an “e.”

“I’ve heard the word before, but it wasn’t one that I practiced,” Whitley said after the bee’s conclusion in the auditorium of Norristown Area High School.

Out of a 28-person field, Whitley was the 15th speller knocked out of the contest. Gracious in defeat, she took a seat next to mom Cindy and had an up close and personal view for the bee’s debated finish.

Arcola Intermediate School’s Michael Duong and Indian Valley Middle School’s Neha Bhardwaj were the last two spellers standing after 19 rounds. For 15 subsequent turns, Duong and Bhardwaj traded correctly-spellled words before the latter was tripped up by “tritium,” a chemical word meaning an isotope of hydrogen. Bhardwaj used a “d” in place of the second “t.” Duong then calmly stepped to the microphone, corrected Bhardwaj’s mistake before nailing “Bolshevik” for the victory.

Then the controversy erupted.

Bhardwaj’s incredulous family stood up from the front row and loudly proclaimed that the judges had misheard their daughter, maintaining she had gotten the word right. After a brief ruling, Duong was confirmed the winner, the second straight and fourth in five years for Arcola.

“I thought she had spelled it wrong, but I wasn’t sure if I had misheard it,” Duong said afterward. “I was a little nervous, but I was ready to keep going if the judges changed their mind. When I saw that I had won, I was ecstatic and jubilant.”

As far as Norristown goes, Whitley wasn’t the only speller to shine this evening. Visitation BVM seventh grader Elisabeth Juechser placed fifth in a rigorous field, earning a $25 cash prize. St. Francis of Assisi’s Jennifer Villegas also participated, but was eliminated in the bee’s first round after getting tripped up by the word “homonym.”

Each student who entered the bee, co-sponsored by The Times Herald and Penn Liberty Bank, arrived by way of winning his or her school’s individual spelling contest. Despite generally upbeat demeanors from the participants, the bee’s competitive nature was palpable to those that fell short of the ultimate prize — the Times Herald Cup, a "Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary", a one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online and a trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be televised by ESPN.

“I was proud to win my school’s spelling bee, but I’m not as proud to only finish fifth here,” said Juechser, who was fooled by the word 'protocol.’ “I came here to win, and what’s even worse is I knew that word… it was just a slip of the tongue.”

Juechser found consolation from her family, as dad Gaston, mom Caroline and sister Franziska were all on hand for support. She credited her family’s diverse background (her father is African, while her mother has German roots) for being able to spell the most difficult words.

“I’ve really only been an avid speller since last year,” said Juechser, an honors math student who vowed to compete in next year’s bee as well. “It’s just something that comes easy to me, and I’ll study even harder next time.”

According to Duong, who has been interested in spelling since first grade, those in charge of planning the bee sent out a packet of over 1,000 possible words to each participant, and the strategy for success was pretty simple.

“Over the course of the last week, I just memorized as many of them as I could,” said Duong, whose former classmate and reigning bee champion Neel Mehta was in the crowd to help cheer him to victory. “All of the kids are equally talented, so I just tried to keep my composure up there on the stage.”

As for any nerves or pressure, those were mostly left for the spellers’ parents.

“I was a nervous wreck every time she stepped up to the microphone,” said Cindy Whitley, Lauren’s mom. “I’m just so proud that she got here, because she had to beat out 900 other students at East Norriton just to get on that stage tonight. I was surprised, too, because Lauren is known for excelling at math and science, not English.”

Lauren took the defeat in stride, and may have been the most free-spirited speller in the field. On multiple occasions while waiting her turn on stage, she smiled and waved to her large throng of supporters, which also included her grandparents and older brother.

After being eliminated, she skipped down to her seat in the audience, hugged her family members and could be seen silently mouthing the words given out to those still competing.

“I knew all of those words, I swear!” she said with a laugh. “I would have liked to win, but honestly I’m just excited that I’m going to get my picture in my school’s yearbook.”

When asked how she might prepare better for next year’s event, Whitley quipped, “Study more words and learn how to spell asterisk.”