Merced County represented at the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee

Cruickshank Middle School student Rishabh Saha, 14, has made it to the finals of the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.

The iconic competition has drawn 245 spellers from all 50 states, U.S. territories, and several countries. Among them are 17 from California.

The spelling bee, which started Tuesday, will crown its winner on Thursday. Spellers qualified for nationals by advancing through regional spelling bees.

A news release from the Merced City School District says that Saha first started at the district’s Spelling Bee and moved on to win the Merced County Spelling bee. He then participated in a pre-regional qualifying test and advanced to the virtual Regional Bee. Saha continued to advance, leading him to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

He was runner-up at the 2022 California State Spelling Bee.

Spellers range from 8-15 years old.

The national competition starts with preliminaries and moves from quarterfinals to semifinals, reaching the finals on Thursday. Competitors are not only put through spelling rounds but multiple-choice vocabulary as well.

According to the news release, Saha creates flashcards, reviews Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Day,” and uses SpellPundit to learn the spelling and definition of new words.

Saha is among eight finalists to survive through eight rounds.

Words that he has spelled correctly, or knew the definition, are: theca, ataxia, Eames, rufinism, swaggering, arimasp, brackish, and daler.

There were also students from Fresno and Visalia who competed. Aarav Mann from Fresno and Sarvadnya Kadam from Visalia both tied for 60th after being eliminated in the fourth round.

You can follow Saha through the live stream and results from spellingbee.com. Finals start today at 5 p.m. local time.

This story was originally published May 30, 2024 at 6:00 AM.