Seven Missouri students land spots in national spelling bee

Let the spelling of many extremely difficult words begin. Seven Missouri students will show the country what they’re made of at this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The competition is May 27-29 in National Harbor, Maryland.

Missouri’s spelling brainiacs are from Columbia, Lee’s Summit, Pleasant Hill, Hornersville, Branson, Jameson, and St. Charles. They range in age, from 11 to 14 years old.

Two participants are returning for their second consecutive national bee appearance – Branson’s Kunal Patel and Hornersville’s Scott Tingle. Patel tied in 2024 for 46th place. Tingle tied in 2024 for 192nd place.

The national competition is celebrating a milestone this year – 100 years of the bee. It began in 1925 and only nine spellers participated in that first bee.

This year, 243 spellers who advanced through regional spelling bees will compete against students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe. Spellers also will represent five countries outside the U.S.: the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.

Missouri’s spellers will have a similar structure to follow as in recent years of the national competition. To narrow the field, there will be spelling rounds and vocabulary rounds within the Preliminaries, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals.

Each speller will take home a variety of prizes. The champion will leave with the esteemed “Scripps Cup,” in addition to cash prizes.

The bee will be broadcast on ION platforms. Missourinet will have updates throughout the competition.