Scripps Spelling Bee 2018: Meet The Georgia Spellers

More than 500 spellers will take part in 2018’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, which officially kicked off Tuesday in Maryland. Of the 519 participants taking part in the annual competition, nine are from Georgia.

The preliminary rounds take place Tuesday and Wednesday and the finals will be held on Thursday, May 31. On Tuesday and Wednesday, you can watch the Bee on ESPN 3. For the finals, tune into ESPN 2 from 10 a.m. - 2p.m. eastern for Part 1 and for Part 2, tune into ESPN at 8:30 p.m eastern.

The preliminaries consist of a multiple choice test and two rounds of spelling onstage, known as round 2 and round 3 respectively, Scripps explains. Spellers are eliminated for spelling incorrectly in either of the onstage rounds. After rounds 2 and 3, no more than 50 spellers head to the finals. (Read the full competition rules here.)

Here are the Georgia spellers taking part in the competition:

• Garv Gaur, Gainesville, Lakeview Academy
• Kyu-Carlo Alegre, Carrollton, Georgia Association of Educators,
• Hailey Heinen, Greensboro, Lake Oconee Academy
• Sarah Schmid, Atlanta, Christ the King School
• Caroline Spivey, Millen, Homeschool
• Abhiram Kapaganty, Suwanee, Hull Middle School in Duluth
• Rayaan Rahman, Alpharetta, Northwestern Middle School
• Chloe Carter, Morganton, Fannin County Middle School in Blue Ridge
• John Courtney, Ringgold

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Check back with Patch and we’ll keep you updated with how the Georgia spellers perform.

And if you’re curious about whether you have what it takes to compete in the Bee, you can take the preliminaries test to find out.

PHOTO: Rohan Rajeev, (R) waits to hear if 12 year old Ananya Vinay of Fresno, CA. spell her word 'marocain' correclty to win the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee, at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center June 1, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)