Three spellers from Indiana are quarterfinalists at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The preliminary round of the competition began Tuesday in National Harbor, Maryland.
The day started with 6 Hoosier spellers.
Gavin Sigua from Indianapolis, Achyut Ethiraj from Ft. Wayne, and Sharanya Kar from Lafayette spelled two words correctly and provided the definition of another.
Kar has dreamed of making it to the Scripps National spelling bee since 2nd grade. The 5th grader from West Lafayette Intermediate School talked about what it was like to take the stage on Tuesday.
"It's nerve-wracking definitely but the important thing is to just take a deep breath, keep your calm, and just look straight at the judges or a blank wall and then just spell the word out," Kar said.
During Bee Week, students take part in special events, educational workshops, and get to go on excursions into Washington D.C.
"The Bee doesn't just want us to focus on like the hard work and everything. They want us to also enjoy the experience, make friends," Kar said.
Sigua says one of his favorite parts of the competition is getting to meet other spellers.
"They're really nice people and they all share the same interest as me and that's really cool to have so many people who all love spelling just as much as I do around me," Sigua said
The quarterfinals will be streamed on ION Plus, Bounce XL and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31.
The semifinals will be streamed on ION Plus, Bounce XL and spellingbee.com from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31.
The semifinals broadcast will air on ION and Bounce from 8 to 10 p.m on Wednesday, May 31.
The finals will air live in primetime on ION and Bounce from 8 to10 p.m. on Thursday, June 1.
