2019 National Spelling Bee: May 27th-30th

[A.H.Black]

Time for the Spelling Bee, 2019 edition. http://spellingbee.com/

The preliminary, written test, was held today and is available for viewing on facebook https://www.facebook.com/scrippsnat...JLcy6KvFxviX7qwyl98C7wP8UbJzPT_IWgf4zy6425Y8I The actual test starts about 30 minutes in.

Here's the rest of the broadcast schedule - Times are Eastern Daylight time
Tuesday, May 28 9:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. ESPN3 and ESPN App (Broadcast schedule differs from competition schedule)
Wednesday, May 29 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. ESPN3 and ESPN App
Thursday, May 30 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN App -- 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN App

There will again be a play-along version.

 

[Debbie S]

Looking through the list of spellers, I see that Akash (from DWTS Kids) is back for his 3rd(?) year. Hope this is his year!

 

[BaileyCatts]

Its that time of year again ...... when 10 year olds make me feel like the stupidest person on earth. I can't even pronounce some of the words these kids spell.

 

[Josh78]

The yearly reminder that in 8th grade (as the defending champion of my school from 7th grade and a top 20 finisher at regional), I crapped out in the first round on the word "buoy" because my teacher (who was the announcer for the bee) pronounced it in a way I'd literally NEVER HEARD ANYONE ELSE in my life pronounce it lol

 

[A.H.Black]

The yearly reminder that in 8th grade (as the defending champion of my school from 7th grade and a top 20 finisher at regional), I crapped out in the first round on the word "buoy" because my teacher (who was the announcer for the bee) pronounced it in a way I'd literally NEVER HEARD ANYONE ELSE in my life pronounce it lol

Hmmm. They do say that all the spellers remember the word they missed for the rest of their lives.

 

[Debbie S]

The yearly reminder that in 8th grade (as the defending champion of my school from 7th grade and a top 20 finisher at regional), I crapped out in the first round on the word "buoy" because my teacher (who was the announcer for the bee) pronounced it in a way I'd literally NEVER HEARD ANYONE ELSE in my life pronounce it lol

You went to the National Bee? A friend of mine did, in 1983. She tells me she made it to the 2nd day (not sure if it was 2 or 3 days then) and her missed word was "eutaxy" - she spelled it w/o the "e". Bummer. But the spellers got to go to the White House and 'meet' President Reagan in the Rose Garden.

 

[quartz]

The yearly reminder that in 8th grade (as the defending champion of my school from 7th grade and a top 20 finisher at regional), I crapped out in the first round on the word "buoy" because my teacher (who was the announcer for the bee) pronounced it in a way I'd literally NEVER HEARD ANYONE ELSE in my life pronounce it lol

In my neck of the woods, everyone pronounces it "BOO ee". I've no clue if this is wrong or right, but we all understand it. I went to school with someone named Booy, and it was the same pronounciation.

 

[tony]

I was in the regional spelling bee when I was in 8th grade as well, and I sure remember the word I missed. glazier.

Odd things stick with you, but I also remember in my school spelling bee (where the few qualified to regionals), I ended up qualifying by spelling bolero. Obviously you know how I knew that word

 

[Sylvia]

http://spellingbee.com/blog

Latest blog post is Siblings FTW:

Her little brother gets a lot of the attention, but Amrita Vukoti, speller 468, is a good speller in her own right.

The Texas sixth grader is the older sister of Akash Vukoti, who is in his third Bee. In his first year, Akash was the youngest at the Bee. He's since appeared on Little Big Shots and Dancing with the Stars: Junior.

 

[Josh78]

You went to the National Bee? A friend of mine did, in 1983. She tells me she made it to the 2nd day (not sure if it was 2 or 3 days then) and her missed word was "eutaxy" - she spelled it w/o the "e". Bummer. But the spellers got to go to the White House and 'meet' President Reagan in the Rose Garden.

Not the national bee, I only made it to the regional bee. I never really had aspirations or hope I would make it to the national bee, I never really attempted to practice the most advanced words in the very back of the manual. My parents couldn't really help me (even though they were both elementary school teachers) because of the advanced cultural/medical/scientific nature of most of the most advanced words you really need to have knowledge of (if you have a parent from an advanced schooling background or who works in a medical/scientific field, it just gives kids a huge advantage) -- More spellers these days do so much more research about etymology and have greater knowledge of these areas than ever before now, but it wasn't really a thing back then...

In my neck of the woods, everyone pronounces it "BOO ee". I've no clue if this is wrong or right, but we all understand it. I went to school with someone named Booy, and it was the same pronounciation.

Everyone I know pronounces it "BOO ee" too, but my teacher pronounced it "Boy" which completely threw me off..

I was in the regional spelling bee when I was in 8th grade as well, and I sure remember the word I missed. glazier.

Odd things stick with you, but I also remember in my school spelling bee (where the few qualified to regionals), I ended up qualifying by spelling bolero. Obviously you know how I knew that word

It's amazing the things you remember in that way, but I think I was still a bit embarrassed because I got used to kids giving me a bit of respect in 7th grade from having gone to regionals (the good ole "15 minutes of fame"), and I took it for granted that I would win again the next year (a 6th-grader ended up winning, I think -- amazing I can even remember that), and then was ashamed when I didn't (but I went about it the wrong way, being all diva, storming off and blaming my teacher, when I can now say i really should have studied more) --- but that last bit just proves you were destined to be involved in skating in SOME way, Tony!

 

[Sylvia]

No more than 50 spellers will move on to the next round. With 369 spellers who got their words right, how do we determine who moves on?

It's all about their scores on the preliminary test. Of the 565 spellers who started with us on Monday, their scores on the written test were tallied. Those who scored highest -- and spelled two words correctly on stage -- will remain in the competition.

The 50 spellers advancing to tomorrow's final have been tweeted: https://twitter.com/ScrippsBee

Copying out the five tweets:

#101 Nicholas D'Sa
#65 Simone Kaplan
#116 Dhyana Mishra
#199 Joseph Moran
#483 Maitri Kovuru
#169 Darian Douglas
#307 Shruthika Padhy
#173 Calvin Franke
#545 Keerthana Krishnan
#424 Nilla Rajan
#92 Nathan Ostermann
#88 Aisha Randhawa
#277 Aritra Banerjee
#258 Blake Bouwman
#14 Vayun Krishna
#5 Rishik Gandhasri
#389 Sebastian Castilla
#375 Phoebe Smith
#158 Anson Cook
#226 Pranav Chandar
#291 Navneeth Murali
#82 Cameron Keith
#343 Pranathi Jammula
#38 Pavani Chittemsetty
#484 Maya Jadhav
#310 Brendan Pawlicki
#274 Melodie Loya
#449 Sheridan Hennessy
#132 Saketh Sundar
#362 Jeff Zheng
#73 Nidhi Vadlamudi
#79 Sahil Langote
#354 Sohum Sukhatankar
#252 Alice Liu
#80 Amith Vasantha
#32 Anisha Rao
#462 Rohan Raja
#175 Atman Balakrishnan
#304 Colette Giezentanner
#562 Hephzibah Sujoe
#493 Harini Logan
#194 Cal Alexander
#446 Jason Sorin
#52 Lauren Guo
#257 Yolanda Ni
#93 Erin Howard
#95 Enya Hubers
#427 Christopher Serrao
#407 Abhijay Kodali
#285 Jack Lado

 

[Debbie S]

No Akash.

 

[Josh78]

Go Alice!! (She's the St. Louis region rep!)

 

[Josh78]

TWO STL area girls made it to the live final rounds airing tonight! (Alice AND Colette!) -- They're doing great and I
hope that they both finish well tonight!

 

[A.H.Black]

Alice is a great speller. She should finish very high. I'm also rooting for Shruthika Padhy and Erin Howard.

 

[annie720]

What NBA finals? I’ve got my glass of wine and a hunk of coconut cake, ready for the Bee.

Go Saketh! Local kid from where I used to live.

 

[mysticchic]

there is the softball college world series that starts tonight!

 

[A.H.Black]

Well..........That was amazing! I was so afraid that one of them would blow it in the last round. I so admire their careful toughness. Congratulations to all 8 champions of the 2019 National Spelling Bee.

 

[quartz]

That was quite the finish - If one of the final 8 had missed, it would have been heartbreaking.
As always, such an amazing group of kids.

 

[annie720]

That was CRAZY! Those kids could barely stand up at the end.

 

[quartz]

I was worried about everyone getting a pee break!

 

[Vash01]

Well..........That was amazing! I was so afraid that one of them would blow it in the last round. I so admire their careful toughness. Congratulations to all 8 champions of the 2019 National Spelling Bee.

Wow! Eight champions? I was going back and forth between this and msnbc. I fell asleep and when I woke up, it was over. Those kids are amazing, even the ones who didn’t win the championship.

 

[ilovepaydays]

And yes, they will EACH get a $50K check!

 

[Sylvia]

ESPN.com: Spelling Bee ends in unprecedented 8-way tie

In the most extraordinary ending in the 94-year history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a record eight spellers were crowned co-champions Thursday night after each correctly spelled a word in the 20th and final round.

Rishik Gandhasri, Erin Howard, Saketh Sundar, Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali, Christopher Serrao and Rohan Raja spelled the final 47 words correctly in their historic walk-off victory, going through five consecutive perfect rounds at Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Maryland.

The majority of the spellers had personal coaches, and 13 of the 16 used word lists and study materials compiled by ex-spellers Shobha Dasari and her younger brother, Shourav. Shobha, who's 18 and will go to Stanford in the fall, said the proliferation of private coaches and online study guides has simplified speller preparation, but she still gave credit to the champions.
"The kids still have to put in the work,'' Shobha said.

Washington Post: National Spelling Bee uses 'octochamps' in a sentence, crowning eight co-champions

New York Times: National Spelling Bee, at a Loss for Words, Crowns 8 Co-Champions

The Atlantic: The Youths Have Outsmarted the Scripps National Spelling Bee

CNN Opinion: What I learned from parents at the National Spelling Bee

 

[A.H.Black]

I was worried about everyone getting a pee break!

They must have let them go after they spelled. At one point I noticed that Shruthika was missing for 3 or 4 spellers. I was concerned she might be sick. Then she appeared back again.

 

[Sylvia]

@A.H.Black, did you catch Vanya Shivashankar's brief interview last night and where she is headed for college?

 

[Sylvia]

Local coverage/articles:

3 North Texas Kids Among 8 Co-Champions At National Spelling Bee: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/05/31/3-north-texas-kids-among-8-champions-national-spelling-bee/

PHOTO caption:
Co-champions (L-R) Shruthika Padhy (#307) of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Erin Howard (#93) of Huntsville, Alabama, Rishik Gandhasri (#5) of San Jose, California, Christopher Serrao (#427) of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, Saketh Sundar (#132) of Clarksville, Maryland, Sohum Sukhatankar (#354) of Dallas, Texas, Rohan Raja (#462) of Irving, Texas, and Abhijay Kodali (#407) of Flower Mound, Texas. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

After stunning Spelling Bee final, two N.J. students just became co-champions with six others: https://www.nj.com/news/2019/05/the...ripps-national-spelling-bee-who-are-they.html

Spelling bee champ Erin Howard of Huntsville: ‘All I can say is, wow’: https://www.al.com/news/2019/05/spe...oward-of-huntsville-all-i-can-say-is-wow.html

Spelling bee: San Jose boy’s crazy run to national championship [Rishik Gandhasri]: https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/05/30/spelling-bee-five-bay-area-spellers-in-national-finals/

The National Spelling Bee ended in an eight-way tie. A Maryland student [Saketh Sundar] was one of the champions: https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/howard/ph-ho-cf-national-spelling-bee-hoco-0606-story.html

 

[A.H.Black]

@A.H.Black, did you catch Vanya Shivashankar's brief interview last night and where she is headed for college?

Missed it. Can I guess it begins with "Y"?

 

[Debbie S]

Missed it. Can I guess it begins with "Y"?

I didn't see the interview either but that narrows it down. Maybe she and Nathan will be in a class together.

 

[BaileyCatts]

These kids today are just too damn smart. Seriously, what are they gonna do next year if there are still like 20 kids left and they run out of words! They need to start making new words.