Missouri has 15 kids participating in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee underway in the Washington, D.C. area. One of the contestants, Alice Liu of the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, will make her second consecutive appearance in the annual contest. The other Missouri spellers come from virtually all corners of the state.
The competition has been supersized this year to include 519 spellers, up from 291 last year. A wildcard program has reportedly been enacted for kids who did not qualify the traditional way to instead allow them to pay their own way.
Round two begins Tuesday, followed by Round 3 on Wednesday and the finals on Thursday.
Missouri’s spellers include:
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- Sophia Nguyen of St. Joseph
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- Ryan Smith of Ballwin
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- Rohan Rao of Columbia
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- Natalie Burnett of St. Joseph
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- Mollie Miner of Sedalia
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- Liam Hahn of Rolla
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- Lauren Holsapple of Jefferson City
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- Kael Miranda of Columbia
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- Joshua Roodhouse Hale of St. Peters
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- Joseph Benson of Kansas City
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- Delaney Nash of Kansas City
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- Brayden Armes of Fredericktown
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- Brady Hughes of Pleasant Hill
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- Alice Liu of Chesterfield
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- Alecia McCulley of Florissant