NATIONAL SPELLING BEE 2006! Is any event more thrilling than a spelling bee? During this first day of the national student competition, New York City's Ryan Mowbray spelled confrere and ombrophobe...but misspelled apolaustic as a-p-o-l-o-s-t-i-c. Poor Ryan!

Still in the running from the metropolitan area: Long Island's Prateek Kohli (juvabione, homiletics, sinecure).























Also among the Round 4 survivors is Asbury Park's Katharine Close (gobemouche, Galilean, chiragra).























At least two kids who fled Hurricane Katrina won't make it to the finals. Maryland's Hung Tran fell to entelechy in Round 2 and Alabama's Ben Szatanek met his match in the devastating Round 4 with endophytous.

You can watch Thursday's rounds from noon to 3 pm EST on ESPN and keep track of them via the Scripps National Spelling Bee Round Results Index. Later, from 8 pm to 10 pm EST, the finals will be covered on ABC-TV! (You should still be able to track them on the Web, too.)