Brianna Gurciullo is reporting in the Times Union 12-year-old Lydia Loverin lost her quest to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thurs., May 29. The Mountain Road School sixth-grader was eliminated during the semifinals when she misspelled the word "velutinous." Lydia earlier won the Capital Region Spelling Bee and was sponsored by the Times Union. She was one of 46 semifinalists who came from a pool of 281 spellers between 8 and 15 years old from around the world. Lydia had never competed in a spelling bee until this academic year. On Thursday night, two spellers were declared co-champions of the competition, the first time that has happened in 52 years. Read the full story in the Times Union.