SPELLBOUND: Oregon style

Tigard resident Shelley Clark made it through the first three rounds of the National Spelling Bee held this week in Washington DC. She moves on now to the semifinals which run today from 10AM to 1PM EDT.

If Clark makes the finals, she'll be on national television later tonight. The finals are scheduled to be rebroadcast on KATU at 8PM.

If you've never seen footage of this event--it was brilliantly captured in the 2002 documentary Spellbound. The families that participate in the National Spelling Bee aren't fooling around. This is serious stuff.

Clark also competed in the Bee last year--but was knocked out in the third round.

Bend resident Katie Nye also competed in this year's Bee but was eliminated in the fourth round.