NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Scripps National Spelling Bee finished up its first day at National Harbor on Tuesday. The competition started with 243 spellers, and after 2 rounds, 183 spellers remain.
Unfortunately, two of our local spellers were sent home.
Abigail Adegbite, a 5th grader from Prince George's County, misspelled "genet." Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines that as, "any of a genus (Genetta) of small Old World usually carnivorous viverrid mammals related to the civets and having retractile claws, spotted or striped fur, and a ringed tail."
Bindi Ray from Riderwood Elementary School in Baltimore County made it to the second round, spelling 'Gippsland' correctly. That is a rural region in the southeastern most part of Victoria, Australia. In the second round, she incorrectly defined 'abstemious.' It means eating sparingly.
Quint Karlsson from Anne Arundel County was knocked out in the third round, that is a test each speller has to take to make it to move on. Those who scored at least 13 on the test advanced to round 4.
The remaining contestants will take part in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Maryland's remaining spellers are: Luke Noblezada of Howard County, and Arya Bhavansikar from Frederick County.
Lauren Merilana from Bethesda and Megan Barrientos from Princess Anne are also gearing up for the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals start at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Wednesday night the semifinals will be broadcast live on ion from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. followed by the finals on Thursday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
ion is channel 2.5. WMAR is owned by the same company as ion.
