Howard County Student in 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee

OXON HILL, MD — Ten Maryland spellers are among 285 who will be attempting to spell harder words as they compete for a bigger cache of prizes in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which began Tuesday at National Harbor and continues through Thursday.

The spellers are among the best of the best, ranking among the top 0.000026 percent of the more than 11 million students who participated in local events.

They come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Schools in Europe. Eleven spellers represent the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea.

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The spellers from Maryland are:

• Storrie Jamerson Kulynych-Irvin, (speller No. 102), 11, a sixth-grader at Annapolis Friends Meeting Homeschool, Annapolis
• Rachel Elizabeth Rowe, (speller No. 103), 14, eighth-grader at Hereford Middle School, Monkton
• Jiming Chen Jr., (speller No. 104), 10, fifth-grader at Bradley Hills Elementary School, Bethesda
• Saketh Sundar, (speller No. 105), 10, fifth-grader at Bellows Spring Elementary School, Ellicott City
• Chloe L. Johnson, (speller No. 106), 13, eighth-grader at Governor Thomas Johnson Middle School, Frederick
• Colby D. Reese, (speller No. 107), 14, eighth-grader at Heritage Academy, Hagerstown
• Mark E. Beaulieu, (speller No. 108), 13, eighth-grader at Spring Ridge Middle School, Lexington Park
• Anna E. Kleist, (speller No. 109), 12, seventh-grader at Plum Point Middle School, Huntingtown
• Maya J. Matava, (speller No. 100), 12, sixth-grader at Salisbury Middle School, Salisbury
• Nicholas D. Gallegos, (speller No. 111), 14, eighth-grader at John Hanson Middle School, Waldorf,

Where, When to Watch on TV

ESPN and its channels will broadcast coverage of the Bee for the 23rd consecutive year with Bee hosts Kevin Negandhi, Paul Loeffler and Kaylee Hartung.

Spellers will be on the stage for the first time on Wednesday, May 25, after Tuesday’s preliminary round.

Here’s the schedule (all times Eastern Daylight Time, all broadcasts are live):

Wednesday

8-11:45 a.m.: Preliminaries (ESPN3)

1:15-4:45 p.m: Preliminaries, announcement of finalists (ESPN3)

Thursday

10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Finals (ESPN2)

8-10 p.m.: Finals (ESPN)

Social Media

Also, follow the behind-the-scenes action on social media. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a two-time winner of the Nielsen weekly Twitter TV ratings for the last week in May.

On the Web

More about the spelling bee, including profiles of each speller and round results and regular competition updates is found at spellingbee.com. The website also has an archive of past winners and their winning words, a sample test and other information.

Image: From left, Storrie Jamerson Kulynych-Irvin of Annapolis; Jiming Chen Jr. of Bethesda; and Saketh Sundar of Ellicott City, via Scripps National Spelling Bee