NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Raleigh County's Elizabeth Koh, winner of the 2012 Gazette-Mail Regional Spelling Bee, will not advance to the semifinal rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Despite a good showing in Wednesday's two oral rounds in which Elizabeth, 13, spelled both her words correctly, her overall score was too low to advance past the preliminaries.

Only 50 of the 278 spellers who started the bee Tuesday will compete in the semifinal rounds, which begin at 10 a.m. today.

Spellers completed the first round -- a computerized spelling test -- on Tuesday. That test contained 50 words of varying difficulty, but only half were "score words." Spellers didn't know which words counted.

On Wednesday, contestants received one word each in rounds two and three, with each correct spelling worth three points. They were not eliminated if they spelled their words incorrectly but did not receive any points.

Only spellers with a score of 23 or above advanced to the semifinals.

The second round began at 8 a.m. Wednesday, but Koh did not get to the microphone until just before noon.

She performed well in the round, correctly spelling "moratorium" after coolly stepping to the microphone, asking for the word's definition and language of origin and reciting the letters.

West Virginia's other spellers also fared well that round.

Thomas Aldridge, a home-schooled eighth-grader from Bridgeport, correctly spelled "wearisome," and Shivali Halabe, a sixth-grader from Suncrest Middle School in Morgantown, spelled "aberrant" correctly.

Olivia Archer, a seventh-grader from St. Vincent de Paul Parish School in Wheeling, misspelled her round two word, "hebetate," however.

Round three began just after 1 p.m.

Again, Koh aced her word, "trattoria." It's a term for a small Italian restaurant.

Thomas and Shivali also spelled their words correctly in round three, spelling "framboise" and "whortleberry," respectively.

Olivia spelled her word, "fennec," incorrectly.

Just after 5 p.m., officials released the list of semifinalists. Parents, participants and spectators waited breathlessly as bee director Paige Kimble stepped onstage and read the list.

In the end, no West Virginia contestants made it to the semifinals.

Lori Anne Madison, a Virginia 6-year-old who is the youngest-ever national bee contestant, also did not advance.

Madison made a good showing early in the bee.

Photographers snapped away as Lori, wearing a bright pink polo shirt and green flip-flop sandals, stepped to the microphone and spelled "dirigible." She high-fived a much larger contestant on the way back to her seat.

Then, following round two, ESPN reporter Samantha Steele took to the stage to get her own turn at the microphone. ESPN2 will broadcast the semifinals at 10 a.m. and the finals at 8 p.m. today.

Steele's word was "slobberhannes."

"I don't speak German," Steele told pronouncer Jacques Bailly.

She eventually called for backup ... from Madison. The pint-size speller walked from her seat to stand beside Steele.

"I think it's a joke," she told the reporter.

Later, Madison failed to spell her round three word correctly, replacing the "I" at the beginning of "ingluvies" with an "E."

This time, as she returned to her chair, the crowd in the Gaylord National Hotel let out a collective, sympathetic "aww."

The Gazette-Mail will cover the bee throughout the week. Stories will appear in both the Gazette and Daily Mail, with updates on www.wvgazette.com and www.dailymail.com