Scripps Spelling Bee 2018: Meet The Maryland Spellers

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD —More than 500 spellers will take part in 2018’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, which officially kicked off Tuesday in Maryland. Of the 519 participants taking part in the annual competition, 23 are from Maryland.

The preliminary rounds take place Tuesday and Wednesday and the finals will be held on Thursday, May 31. On Tuesday and Wednesday, you can watch the Bee on ESPN 3. For the finals, tune into ESPN 2 from 10 a.m. - 2p.m. eastern for Part 1 and for Part 2, tune into ESPN at 8:30 p.m eastern.

The preliminaries consist of a multiple choice test and two rounds of spelling onstage, known as round 2 and round 3 respectively, Scripps explains. Spellers are eliminated for spelling incorrectly in either of the onstage rounds. After rounds 2 and 3, no more than 50 spellers head to the finals. (Read the full competition rules here.)

Here are the Maryland spellers taking part in the competition:

• Noah Dooley, Silver Spring, St. Augustine Catholic School, Washington, DC
• Robert Foster, Kensington, National Presbyterian School, Washington, DC
• Maanvi Sarwadi, Elkton, Delaware Spelling Bee Collaborative
• Kayden Wilkins, Upper Marlboro, The Washington Informer, Washington, DC
• Sophia Clark, White Marsh, The Baltimore Bee,
• Isabel Messina, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
• Storrie Kulynych-Irvin, Annapolis, Maryland Sports, Baltimore
• Sadie Storm, Chesapeake Beach, Calvert County Public Schools, Prince Frederick
• Jiming Chen Jr., Bethesda, Takoma Park Middle School, Silver Spring
• Manjeet Nirula, Silver Spring, Briggs Chaney Middle School, Silver Spring
• Ava Camille Bautista, Salisbury, Wicomico Middle School
• Abigail Vanasse, Indian Head, St. Peter's School, Waldorf
• Nolan Lizmi, Mount Airy, Windsor Knolls Middle School, Ijamsville
• Nicole Tsygan, Parkton, Hereford Middle School, Monkton
• Saketh Sundar, Clarksville, Howard County Library, Columbia
• James Gordy, Princess Anne, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
• Keerthi Padmanabhan, North Potomac, The Meakem Group, Bethesda
• Charles Millard, Frederick, Frederick County Public Libraries
• Patrick McCarthy, Hagerstown, The Herald-Mail
• Emily Winkler, La Plata, Charles County Public Schools
• Luke Suko, Dayton, St. Louis School, Clarksville
• Veer Tuliani, Ellicott City, Wilde Lake Middle School, Columbia
• Charity Parrott, Hagerstown

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Check back with Patch and we’ll keep you updated with how the Maryland spellers perform.

And if you’re curious about whether you have what it takes to compete in the Bee, you can take the preliminaries test to find out.

PHOTO: Rohan Rajeev, (R) waits to hear if 12 year old Ananya Vinay of Fresno, CA. spell her word 'marocain' correclty to win the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee, at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center June 1, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)