Someone will win the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday but unfortunately it won’t be one of four students representing West Virginia.
The competition moves into the semifinal round on Thursday afternoon in Washington, D.C. with the finals set for Thursday night.
The four spellers from West Virginia all spelled their words correctly during two preliminary rounds on Wednesday but it was the combined results of the computerized spelling and vocabulary test and their on-stage scores that knocked them out of the competition.
The on-stage scores were combined with the computer test scores to determine which 41 spellers moved on in the competition.
The following students were representing West Virginia:
Lauren Coccari, 14, is an eighth grader at Sissonville Middle School in Kanawha County.
Louis Aldridge, 11, is home schooled in Harrison County.
Aarohi Srivastava, 13, is in the eight grade at Suncrest Middle School in Morgantown.
Lillian Bischof, 12, attends St. Michael Parish School in Wheeling where she is in the sixth grade.
Before being eliminated, they all correctly spelled words like fuguist, ipecac, vorlage and synusia.
In all, more than 280 students from across the United States have been competing this week in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The semifinal round for the Scripps National Spelling Bee will be shown starting at 2 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2. The finals will start at 8 p.m. Thursday on ESPN.