Nancy Richardson stood confidently in front of the microphone, reading carefully from the scribbled copy on the notepad she held. “Sesquipedalian,” she repeated. “S-E-S-Q-U-I-P-E-D-A-L-I-A-N.” And with that, the 23rd annual Spelling Bee came to a close Tuesday evening, after nine teams went through 79 words, ranging in difficulty from “countenance” to “aposiopesis.”