Two spellers from Mississippi will take the national stage Tuesday as they compete to be the top spellers of the 231 at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Vihaan Mahajan from Rankin County and Baruni Jakkula from Washington County were the champion and runner-up, respectively, of the state spelling bee held in March. This year The Dispatch, the regional sponsor, raised money to help send two students to the U.S. capital for the national bee.
Lois Kappler, state bee coordinator, said Mahajan was interviewed for a segment that will be featured at the bee.
“(Sunday) evening they filmed Vihaan…” Kappler said in a text. “He will be featured with other spellers during the bee week events.”
When spelling, Mahajan uses sign language for the letter “R” because he cannot say the letter, and the final word that secured the state bee title for him was “acupuncture.”
Mahajan and Jakkula are in the middle of the spelling pack at spots 109 and 110.
Preliminary rounds begin Tuesday at 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on ION Plus. The opening ceremony will be aired on ION Plus at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Quarterfinals will be on Wednesday on ION Plus from 7 a.m. to noon.
Semifinals will be Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m., and finals will be on Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. Both will be on ION, which is also available on many streaming services including YouTube TV, Roku Channel and Google TV.
All spelling bee rounds will be streamed on spellingbee.com.
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