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Three Colorado kids make it to National Spelling Bee finals

Posted at 10:08 AM, May 31, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-31 12:08:37-04

Forty-one spellers have advanced to the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee out of a field of 516, by far the biggest in the 93-year history of the competition.

The finalists were announced Wednesday after two days of onstage spelling during which nearly 200 spellers were eliminated for getting words wrong. Scores on a written spelling and vocabulary test determined who advanced to the finals.

Among the finalists are:

  • Jacob Faulk – Denver
  • Cameron Keith – Boulder
  • Lauren Guo – Arvada

There were no perfect scores on the test. Bee executive director Paige Kimble says, "We thought it was an easy test. We were wrong."

The top scorers were Shruthika Padhy, Aisha Randhawa and Karthik Nemmani.

Shruthika already came into the bee as one of the favorites, having finished in seventh place last year.

The past 13 champions and 18 of the last 22 have been Indian-American.

You can find more information on the competitors and the schedule of events at spellingbee.com/

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)