WASHINGTON D.C. (WCMH) — An eighth grader from Columbus just missed out on making the finals of the 100th Scripps National Spelling Bee in D.C.
Columbus-native Avinav Prem Anand, 14, is sponsored by the Blue Jackets and was able to get all the way to the ninth round but misspelled the word “Morillon” to be eliminated. This was Anand’s fourth consecutive spelling bee and his best ever finish with being tied 20th overall.
The Orange Middle School student swiftly advanced to the semifinals after a long day of spelling and vocabulary questions in the quarterfinals.
Anand spelled “Thrombus”, “Nappe”, and “Watteau” correctly while also defining “prolific” and “timbre” correctly to get to the ninth round of 35 spellers. When asked to spell “Morillon”, he spelled it “Merillin”.
10-year-old Joseph Keffer, a fifth grader from Athens at Chesapeake Middle School, was able to advance past the preliminaries but missed out on the quarterfinals after being eliminated from the third round test. Keffer officially finished tied 100th.
The National Spelling Bee finals take place Thursday night at 8 p.m. An Ohioan has not won the competition since 2010 and a central Ohio competitor has never won.