Well, here we are. It’s all happening.The championship finals of the 97th annual ScrippsNational Spelling Beeare upon us. The eyes of the English-language orthographic world are trained on the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, where spelling’s biggest night is a little more than an hour away from popping off.
More than 11m students, ranging in age from six to 14, participated in this year’s competition at one stage or another. Of those, 243 earned a trip to (just outside) the nation’s capital by winning spelling bees organized by their local sponsors, typically newspapers, universities or non-profits. All roads have led to tonight: the Super Bowl for smart kids. And it all gets started at 8pm ET.
That elite field of 243 invitees was narrowed down to 99 during Tuesday’s preliminary spelling and vocabulary rounds. Three quarter-final rounds on Wednesday morning narrowed the field to 57 semi-finalists with only nine surviving the afternoon semi-finals to reach tonight’s nationally televised finale.
The nonet represents the best of the best. Here’s who they are.
Speller No 4, Esha MarupudiAge 13, 7th gradeSponsor: Arizona Educational Foundation (Phoenix, Arizona)School: BASIS ChandlerFun fact: Esha writes lyrics and composes her own songs.
Speller No 20, Oliver HalkettAge 13, 7th gradeSponsor: Los Angeles County Office of Education (Los Angeles, California)School: Mirman SchoolFun fact: Oliver received a National History Day honorable mention for his essay on the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Speller No 30, Sarvadnya KadamAge 14, 8th gradeSponsor: Tulare County Office of Education (Visalia, California)School: Oak Grove Elementary SchoolFun fact: Sarvadnya speaks Marathi, Hindi and English and wants to learn Sanskrit after he retires from spelling.
Speller No 53, Sarv DharavaneAge 11, 5th gradeSponsor: Georgia Association of Educators (Tucker, Georgia)School: Austin Elementary SchoolFun fact: Sarv enjoys folding origami and has decided he will fold 1,000 paper cranes.
Speller No 136, Harini MuraliAge 13, 8th gradeSponsor: SNSB Region Three Bee (Edison, New Jersey)School: Woodrow Wilson Middle SchoolFun fact: Harini has been learning Carnatic music, an Indian classical style, since she was 6.
Speller No 144, Brian LiuAge 13, 8th gradeSponsor: SNSB Region Four Bee (Great Neck, New York)School: Great Neck North Middle SchoolFun fact: Brian’s pet chinchillas are named Obsidian and Stormy for their colors and personalities.
Speller No 156, Aishwarya KallakuriAge 14, 8th gradeSponsor: Carolina Panthers (Charlotte, North Carolina)School: Valor Preparatory AcademyFun fact: Aishwarya is really interested in psychology theory, especially the work of Carl Jung.
Speller No 182, Akshaj SomisettyAge 13, 8th gradeSponsor: Pennon Education (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)School: Mountain View Middle SchoolFun fact: Akshaj has recently started collecting different currencies and has collected money from over 10 countries already.
Speller No 207, Faizan ZakiAge 13, 7th gradeSponsor: Dallas Sports Commission (Dallas, Texas)School: CM Rice Middle SchoolFun fact: Faizan can speed-solve a Rubik’s Cube in about 30 seconds.
Bryan will be here shortly.In the meantimehereis a lookahead to tonight’s finals.