Scripps Spelling Bee 2018: Meet The Illinois Spellers

ILLINOIS — 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, 26 are from Illinois.

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 Illinois spellers taking part in the competition:

1. Jaden Fellows, 12, of Chicago is a 6th grader at The Latin School of Chicago
2. Riya Joshi, 13, of Chiacgo is a 7th grader at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School
3. Gabriel Ennin, 14, of Plainfield is an 8th grader at Heritage Grove Middle School
4. Olivia Schwab, 12, of Plainfield, is a 6th grader at Murphy Junior High School
5. Ethan Ayersman, 14, of Chicago is an 8th grader at St. John of the Cross Parish School
6. Tejas Shyamsundar, 14, of Vernon Hills is an 8th grader at Daniel Wright Junior High School
7. Sharanya Pastapur, 14, of Lake Zurich is an 8th grader at Lake Zurich Middle School North
8. Anmol Dash, 13, of Buffalo Grove, is an 8th grader at Daniel Wright Junior High School
9. Atman Balakrishnan, 12, of Hinsdale, is a 6th grader at Hinsdale Middle School
10. Shria Halkoda, 11, of Wadsworth is a 7th grader at River Trail School in Gurnee
11. Calvin Franke, 13, of Palatine is a 7th grader at Plum Grove Junior High School
12. William Farrell III, 13, of Chicago is a 7th grader at Immaculate Conception - St. Joseph School
13. John Nelson, 12, of Western Springs is 6th grader at St. John of the Cross Parish School
14. Brooke Danz, 11, of McHenry, is a 5th grader at Riverwood Elementary School
15. Pranav Kollu, 11, of Algonquin, is a 5th grader at Cambridge Lakes Charter School
16. Ethan Smith, 13, of Peoria, is a 7th grader at Dunlap Middle School
17. Caroline Otto, 13, is a homeschooled 8th grader in Baileyville
18. Maya Jyothinagaram, 13, of Forsyth, Illinois, is an 8th grader at Maroa-Forsyth Middle School
19. Sophia Brown, 13, of Macomb, is a 7th grader at Macomb Junior High School
20. Mera Moucharrafie, 13, of Belvidere, is a 7th grader at Belvidere Central Middle School
21. Rebekah Zeigler, 13, of Polo, is a 7th grader at Aplington Middle School
22. Aastha Patel, 14, of Champaign, is an 8th grader at Edison Middle School
23. Bryanna Sonntag, 14, of Genoa, is an 8th grader at Genoa-Kingston Middle School
24. Daniel Healy, 12, of Port Byron, is a 6th grader homeschool student
25. Laura Andrea Tejero, 14, of Bourbonnais, is an 8th grader at Bradley Central Middle School
26. Aubrey Charles, 13, of Mount Carroll, is a 7th grader at West Carroll Middle School

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.

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