OXON HILL, Md. — The preliminaries of the Scripps National Spelling Bee are underway at the National Harbor. There are several spellers from the D.C. region competing.
There are 12 spellers from Virginia, with five representing Northern Virginia.
Charlotte Walsh, 14, is from Merrifield, Virginia in Fairfax County and is competing in the National Spelling Bee for the third time. In 2019 she tied for 51st and in 2022 she tied for 32nd. This could be her year! She is the only local DMV speller to make it to the final round.
Luke DiMaso is representing Fredericksburg. The 14-year-old has plans to compete competitively in chess after the spelling bee.
Manassas, Virginia's Siya Sampath is competing in the bee at the age of 9. She's representing J.W. Alvey Elementary School.
Loudoun County will be represented by 12-year-old Oviya Amalraj from Leesburg.
Ruby Kadera, 13, will take the spelling bee stage to represent Arlington and Kenmore Middle School.
There are three representatives from our area of Maryland. Eighth grader Alec Gallahan is from La Plata. Larry Liao, 11, is from Bethesda. Cheyenne Hensley, 13, is representing Frederick.
In the District, two spellers are set to compete. Jerald Jude Campana, 13, goes to St. Albans School, and 14-year-old Lesley Hernandez Martin attends Kenmoor Middle School.
We wish all our local spellers the best of L-U-C-K!