Alan Xu, an 8th-grader at Earl Warren Junior High in Bakersfield and son of Chinese immigrants, correctly spelled "martyr" in the Championship Round to win the 30th annual Kern County Spelling Bee held at University Square in Bakersfield on Feb. 7. Xu outlasted Sophia Valdez, a 6th-grader at Ollivier Middle School in Bakersfield, to win. Xu correctly spelled "utterance" and then Valdez missed on "emblazon." Xu won the round but had to correctly spell "martyr" to win the competition. "Waiting for the last word, I thought to myself, 'it better be easy,'" Xu said. "When the pronouncer said 'martyr,' at first I didn't think I knew it, but then I remembered I had seen it before. So I formed the letters in my head and spelled it. This was a really great competition -- much harder than what I went through in regionals. Everyone was a really good speller. I feel very, very lucky to have won." Valdez, who, ironically, also finished second last year as a fifth-grader, hung with Xu through every word, until the end. More