The proud parents sat in the back whispering at the difficulty or simpleness of the word. The classmates sat on the floor keeping track of who was getting the most correct answers. Among the crowd, a little brother closed his eyes and looked away as if saying a quiet prayer to himself every time it was his sister's turn.

"Purify, P-U-R-I-F-Y, purify," said his sister, Judy Mizrachi. He quickly turned to his mother and with relief and admiration toward his big sister said, "Mom she won!"

Fifth graders at Austin's Banfield, Southgate, Neveln, Sumner battled their nerves as they competed at the first round of the 2003 Spelling Bee.

On Wednesday, each of the elementaries determined two finalists and an alternate winner from their building who will then go on to compete at Ellis against top five finalists from sixth, seventh and eighth grades. An alternate is chosen in case one of the two finalists is unable to compete later on.

To qualify for the school competition, students took a test and the top 15 to 20 scores competed to advance to Ellis for the district contest Jan 28.

"It takes a lot of courage to stand up here and be able to spell a word. It's something that takes a lot of practice and a lot of courage," said Police Chief Paul Philipp, announcer at the Southgate competition for the second year.

Participants did a practice round to warm up. The announcer then began reading a word from a list along with a sentence.

After the seventh round and some 70 words, the two winners were determined at Southgate. Will Darling and Amanda Wichmann, took first place.

"I tried to prepare by looking up words in the dictionary and I had also been practicing without paper," said Wichmann of her victory. She said she will continue to prepare and "try to store things in her brain."

Darling practiced for three hours the night before. "I felt that when I walked up to the microphone I turned white but then it got easier," Darling said.

Students had three to four weeks to prepare for the competition said DedaRae Graber, fifth grade teacher and organizer of the competition at Southgate.

"It's so hard to get up in front of everyone," Graber said.

Daniel Posthumus, who has been Southgate principal since last August, said it's a wonderful program to have at schools.

"It takes a lot of courage to stand up there in front of everyone and be able to spell," Posthumus said.

Competitions ran throughout the day. At Banfield fifth graders Jonathan Ramirez and Ryan Fullerton took first place and Judy Mizrachi was the alternate.

At Neveln fifth graders Nicholas Kerling and Gage Morgan won and Alixandra Borland was the alternate.

Because a lack of time on Wednesday, Sumner elementary will conclude its competition today.

Ellis Middle School will have its competition Thursday, picking the top five spellers from each grade level.

Winners received certificates of achievement and T-shirts. All participants received certificates of participation.

Roxana can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto:roxana.orellana@austindailyherald.com