Skyler DeJarnatt, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Bend’s Morning Star Christian School, spelled her way through two rounds of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee but was eliminated today in round three.

After correctly spelling ”esne” (a day laborer) and ”reimbursable” in the first two rounds, Skyler tripped up on ”ferrule,” (a ring or sleeve of metal put around a shaft to strengthen it) this morning.

Oregon’s only other contestant in the 74th annual event, Alexandra ”Zan” Irene Frackleton of Beaverton also was eliminated today in the third round.

She misspelled ”amblyopia.”

”The first two rounds were easier than I thought they’d be,” Skyler said in a phone interview from her hotel room today. ”The third round was a lot harder.”

She said she had seen and practiced the first two words she got in the contest, but the third round word was one she had never seen before.

It was also one of the few homonyms used in the contest.

Skyler’s parents filed an appeal with spelling bee officials over the way the word was pronounced, said Bulletin representative Judy Coleman.

She said the DeJarnatts ran into the pronouncer after the morning session, and he said he felt bad because he pronounced ferrule differently than he had in the past.

About 250 spellers from all over the nation gathered for the event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C.

Skyler, who is sponsored by The Bulletin, won $100 for making it into the third round, but said the best award she got was having a chance to see all the historical sites Washington has to offer.

Skyler and her parents, Gary and Roxanne, visited the Washington, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea and Holocaust memorials along with seeing the White House, Newseum and the Smithsonian museums.

It was Skyler’s first trip on a plane.

The DeJarnatt’s also attended the Memorial Day service at the Arlington National Cemetery where they sat about 150 feet from President Bush.

”I’ll remember everything about this,” Skyler said, ”how everything was so big and how I met so many people. It was fun.”

Skyler earned her trip to Washington after out-spelling 93 other local students earlier this spring at the National Spelling Bee regional qualifying bee in Bend.

She correctly spelled ”mitigate” for her local title.

The finals of the National Spelling Bee start Thursday. The winner will receive $10,000.