The 2003 final
The 76th Scripps National Spelling Bee was decided in Washington on 29 May 2003. The New York Times covered it under the winning word: a prize for 'pococurante', an adjective meaning indifferent or nonchalant, spelled by Sai Gunturi. Evelyn Blacklock finished second, eliminated on 'gnathonic' - a word for the flattering or sycophantic.
She was 14 and home-schooled, from Tuxedo Park in New York State. Home-schooled spellers have been a persistent presence near the top of the bee, because the competition rewards a training regime that a conventional timetable does not easily accommodate, but the two reports used here do not discuss her preparation.
The year before
The detail that distinguishes Blacklock from other runners-up is her 2002 result. She had competed the previous year and finished 59th. Fifty-ninth at the national bee is a respectable outcome - it means surviving the written round and several oral rounds against the best speller from every region in the country - but it is a long way from the closing stage.
Moving from 59th to second inside twelve months is a jump the bee's own records rarely show. It implies a year of deliberate work on exactly the material that had ended the previous run. Neither the New York Times nor the Casper Star-Tribune report used here describes what that work consisted of, and this page does not speculate about it.
What the national bee demands
The Scripps National Spelling Bee assembles the winners of regional competitions from across the United States and eliminates them one misspelling at a time. There is no aggregate score and no second attempt at a word. A speller who has answered forty words correctly is level with a speller who has answered four, until one of them is wrong.
That structure is why the difference between second place and first is a single letter, and why a 59th-place finish and a runner-up finish can belong to the same competitor a year apart. The format measures a single afternoon, not a career.
The thinness of the record
Coverage of the 2003 bee is real but sparse, and most of it is about the champion. Sai Gunturi's name is in both headlines used here; Blacklock appears as the speller he beat. That is the normal shape of spelling-bee reporting, and it is why a page like this one has to be explicit about how little survives.
The research record behind this page describes the coverage as thin, and it is right. Two dispatches from a single day, one from a national paper and one regional, are the whole documented public trace of a fourteen-year-old's competitive peak.
What is documented and what is not
Documented: her runner-up finish at the 76th National Spelling Bee in May 2003, her age of 14, that she was home-schooled, that she is from Tuxedo Park, New York, that she placed 59th at the 2002 bee, the word she missed and the champion and winning word.
Not documented in these sources: her date of birth, her family, how she prepared, whether she competed after 2003, and anything about her life since. No IQ figure appears in any source used for this page. A spelling bee result is a record of preparation and nerve, and this page claims nothing beyond it.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sophia Hoffman | United States | The 2014 Jackson County marathon spelling bee | Age 9 |
| Akshay Buddiga | United States | Fainting and recovering at the 2004 National Spelling Bee | Age 11 |
| Evelyn Blacklock | United States | Runner-up at the 2003 National Spelling Bee | Age 13 |
| Kush Sharma | United States | Winning the 2014 Jackson County marathon spelling bee | Age 13 |
| Finola Hackett | Canada | Runner-up at the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee | Age 14 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Runner-up at the 76th Scripps National Spelling Bee, 29 May 2003, aged 14
- Home-schooled, from Tuxedo Park, New York
- Eliminated on 'gnathonic'; Sai Gunturi won on 'pococurante'
- Had finished 59th at the 2002 national bee
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No date of birth is published in the sources used here
- Nothing documents how she prepared between the 2002 and 2003 bees
- Nothing in this record documents any later competition or her life since 2003
Questions people ask about Evelyn Blacklock
What is Evelyn Blacklock known for?
Finishing runner-up at the 2003 National Spelling Bee at 14, a year after placing 59th at the same competition.
How old is Evelyn Blacklock?
She was reported as 14 in May 2003, which places her birth year around 1989. No date of birth appears in these sources.
Which word did she miss?
'gnathonic', meaning flattering or sycophantic.
Who won the 2003 spelling bee?
Sai Gunturi, on the word 'pococurante', meaning indifferent or nonchalant.
Was Evelyn Blacklock home-schooled?
Yes. The coverage of the 2003 bee describes her as a home-schooled speller from Tuxedo Park, New York.
Where is Evelyn Blacklock now?
Nothing in the sources used here documents her life after May 2003, and this page does not invent an update.
Is Evelyn Blacklock on Wikipedia?
No standalone English Wikipedia article for her is recorded here.
What is Evelyn Blacklock's IQ?
No IQ figure for her appears in any source used for this page.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Evelyn’s story?
Where did Evelyn Blacklock finish at the 2002 national bee?
Which word ended her 2003 run?
Who won the 2003 bee?
Sources
- At U.S. Spelling Bee, a Prize for 'Pococurante' — The New York Times, 2003-05-30
- Sai Gunturi crowned 76th spelling bee champ — Casper Star-Tribune, 2003-05-30
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
Discover More Child Prodigies
50+ stories of contemporary young geniuses changing chess, music, science, and art.
Explore All Prodigies →Related Child Prodigy Profiles
Akshay Buddiga🇺🇸 United States — He hit the stage floor, stood up within seconds…
Kush Sharma🇺🇸 United States — The bee ran out of words before it ran out of spellers…
Sophia Hoffman🇺🇸 United States — At eleven she spelled a county bee to a standstill and…
Naysa Modi🇺🇸 United States — She had beaten him at the county bee. A new wild-card rule…
Finola Hackett🇨🇦 Canada — A Canadian fourteen-year-old spelled her way to second…
Saryn Hooks🇺🇸 United States — She was eliminated on a word she had spelled correctly…
