NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Opal Mishra had a good run in the Scripps National Spelling Bee until she ran into foliage, or rather, ‘feuillage.’

That was the word that ended Opal’s run in the bee, but the Basha Accelerated Middle School sixth-grader won praise from head judge Mary Brooks.

“Opal, you’ve done an outstanding job, and we know you told us you wanted to go to Paris and I think somewhere I read that you’d also like to go to Harvard University and we think after this week’s performance we know there is no dream that’s going to be too big for you, so congratulations,” Brooks said.

Opal was one of three competitors from Arizona and the last to be eliminated.

That happened on May 31, the day before Dev Shah won it all.

Opal, 12, said that she competed in her first spelling bee this year. From that first win in her class spelling bee in Chandler, she went on to the district, the regional and, finally, the Arizona state spelling bee where she finished second, securing her spot at the national bee.

She said she was nervous before her first competition but has since found ways to make taking the stage a little easier.

“When I get nervous, I just try to ignore all the people and just focus on the word and the judge and my parents I think,” she said.

The winner, Dev, a 14-year-old from the Tampa Bay area in Florida, won the national bee on June 1 by spelling “psammophile.”

And while that may be Greek to us, to Dev it’s “psammo” meaning sand and “phile” meaning love.