NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Eight Maryland students competed at the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week, representing their schools and communities. Among them were Aruuke Rayeva of Charles County and Abigail Adegbite of Prince George’s County.
The students — Quint Karlsson of Gambrills, Amelia “Bindi” Ray of Baltimore, Lauren Merillana of Rockville, Luke Noblezada of Ellicott City, Arya Bhavansikar of Ijamsville, Aruuke Rayeva of La Plata, Megan Barrientos of Salisbury, and Abigail Adegbite of Bowie — were sponsored by local businesses, libraries and universities. A total of 243 spellers competed in this year’s competition, which consisted of four rounds: the preliminaries on Tuesday, May 27, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.
Sixty spellers were eliminated in the preliminaries on Tuesday, and another 84 were eliminated by the written spelling and vocabulary test on Wednesday morning ahead of the quarterfinals.
Noblezada, Barrientos, Merillana and Bhavansikar advanced to the live quarterfinals. Bhavansikar was eliminated in that round, and the remaining three Marylanders were knocked out in the semifinals.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which began in 1925. The bee was canceled from 1943 to 1945 due to World War II, and again in 2020 due to COVID-19 closures.
Participating in the Scripps spelling bee is a long process that starts with local competitions. Some spellers participate in intense, high-profile online competitions to help them prepare. All 50 states, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Department of Defense Schools in Europe are represented in the national Scripps competition. This year’s bee also included spellers from five countries outside the U.S.: the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.
Making the Scripps bee is a major achievement, and past winners cite their spelling bee victory as a treasured part of their academic past. They also say prepping for the spelling bee gave them skills for high school and beyond.
Congratulations to all of our Maryland participants! Watch the finals on Thursday, May 29, at 8 p.m.
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