Three Massachusetts children will be competing in the quarterfinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday.
Overall, 245 children are in this year’s competition. They have to compete in four segments of competition before being declared the winner.
The children will need to compete in both the vocabulary rounds, where the speller has to orally select the correct multiple choice answer to a vocabulary question, and spell-off rounds. The vocabulary round was added in 2021.
The quarterfinals starts at 8 a.m. on Wednesday followed by the semifinals Wednesday night. The finals will be at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
The winner gets a $50,000 cash prize.
Tanoshi Inomata
The 11-year-old Boston boy will be competing in his second Scripps National Spelling Bee. He competed in 2023 and tied for 141st place.
He first became fascinated with cars when he was a baby, according to the Scripps National Spelling Bee website. That got him interested in the letters on the license plates, which sparked his interest in languages.
He creates comics, plays soccer and is studying Japanese dialects.
Adarsh Venkannagari
The 10-year-old Lynn boy is also competing in his second Scripps National Spelling Bee. He competed in 2023 and tied for 57th place.
He likes writing, drawing, biking, skiing, and playing chess. He also enjoys solving Rubik’s cubes. His record for solving a 2×2 Rubik’s cub is 10 seconds, the website states.
Josephine Gautier
This is the first Scripps National Spelling Bee competition for the 12-year-old Vineyard Haven girl.
She is involved in ballet and modern dance and takes piano, violin and vocal lessons. She also enjoys painting, drawing, acting, writing stories and reading.
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