11 Maryland Students to Compete in National Spelling Bee This Week

What do the words knaidel, guetapens and cymotrichous have in common?

Besides sending readers to the nearest dictionary, they are the winning words from the last three years of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Eleven Maryland students will compete this week in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Maryland’s 11 super-spellers competing and their sponsors are:

• Isabelle Marie Simmons, 21st Century Education Foundation, Annapolis
• Danyah Farhat Imam, Learn It Systems, Baltimore
• Nikita Singh, The Meakem Group, Bethesda
• Megan A. Rabe, Howard County Library, Columbia
• Stephen Hochschild, Frederick County Public Libraries, Frederick
• Maddie K. Bowers, The Herald-Mail, Hagerstown
• Tamya Michelle Matthews, The Gazette & The Star, Laurel
• Jennifer M. Tennant, The Enterprise, Lexington Park
• Selena D. Antosh, The Recorder, Prince Frederick
• Gia Lauren B. Bautista, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne
• Aashka J. Patel, Maryland Independent, Waldorf

This year, 281 spellers will converge from eight countries: the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Competitors hail from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Schools in Europe.

The competition began today (Tuesday) at National Harbor with computer testing for the would-be champs. Spellers will take to the stage for the first time on Wednesday. ESPN will broadcast the championship finals from 8 to 10 p.m. on Thursday.

For the 21st consecutive year, ESPN and its family of channels will provide coverage of the Bee with hosts Chris McKendry, Paul Loeffler and Kaylee Hartung. This includes a play-along version where viewers can test their spelling mettle along with the competitors. 

The schedule is:

·       Preliminaries on Wednesday, May 28, from 8 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. EDT (watch live; play along). 

·       Preliminaries on Wednesday, May 28, from 1:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. EDT. ESPN3 will broadcast the announcement of semifinalists immediately following the conclusion of Round Three (watch live; play along). 

·       Semifinals on Thursday, May 29, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT. ESPN2 will broadcast the announcement of championship finalists immediately following the conclusion of Round Six (watch live; play along). 

·       Championship Finals broadcast live on ESPN on Thursday, May 29 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT (watch live; play along).  

Maryland has never had a student win the whole shebang.

Here's what the champion will take home this year:

• From Scripps, a $30,000 cash prize and the Scripps National Spelling Bee engraved trophy
• From Merriam-Webster, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond and a complete reference library
• From Encyclopædia Britannica, $1,200 of reference works including the Britannica Global Edition, 1768 Encyclopædia Britannica Replica Set Deluxe Edition, 3-year membership to Britannica Online Premium and Britannica World Atlas

The spelling bee is the nation's largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and local spelling bee sponsors in the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe; also, the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea.