“This just came as a surprise”, Park said.
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“I just try to pick out bits and pieces inside that word and try to really dissect it and see if I can find any roots or parts of other words that I know or that I’ve seen before”, Veronica said.
“When she’s spelling I look down so she’s probably seeing my hair”, Joseph said.
This is the second year that Wisconsin is sending its top three spellers to the national bee instead of just the victor. “She has no place to put any more”.
“I caught a break on that”, Srikar said, referring to studying only a fraction of the book’s tens hundreds of pages. “She views this as, ‘this is something that I’m learning'”.
When it comes to school, both Amrith and Lawrence say their favorite subjects tend to be math and science. However, according to her teachers, her strong vocabulary also allows her to excel in language arts.
That she’s immersed in everything, from student government to TV’s “Cupcake Wars” and computer games, is obvious in her career choice.
On Tuesday, spellers will start with computer-based tests. In the world of competitive spelling, one strike and you’re out.
Serrao is one of seven youngsters representing New Jersey in the competition.
A maximum of 50 spellers are chosen to advance to the finals segment of the bee Thursday.
The preliminary rounds will be broadcast online at watchespn.com and on the watchespn app beginning at 7 a.m. central time on Wednesday.
Peter can expect more challenging words at the bee, set for May 24-26 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, where recent champions have won a national trophy with scherenschnitte, nunatak, stichomythia and feuilleton.
Despite the nerves, Buhlman is confident she will do well, though she is unsure how she stacks up against numerous competitors who have devoted their lives to spelling for several years.
If the stars are aligned when it’s her turn at the microphone, Jacques Bailly, the onetime spelling champion who now pronounces words, will ask her to spell a puzzler that sounds like kay-lee. Amrith has his love of tennis and in his spare time, Lawrence likes playing with friends and making videos of dominoes falling in different configurations.
Naysa’s father, Nayan Modi, said she prepares for Scripps for three or four hours on weekdays and at least seven hours a day on weekends.
She said she wants to encourage more children to study and go to Scripps.
The teen is one of 61 spellers to be competing in the Scripps event for the second time.
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Last year, there were two victors, Gokul Venkatachalam, of Missouri, and Vanya Shivashankar, of Kansas.
