29-05-2025
Inland Northwest contestants eliminated in National Spelling Bee's first two days
May 28—WASHINGTON — The 100th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee continued for a second day on Wednesday, with some especially tough words eliminating the remaining contestants from the Northwest.
Gabriel Aguirre of Spokane Valley, 11, was eliminated in the first round on Tuesday when he misspelled "ape-ape," an herb that grows in Hawaii. He can try again next year and will be eligible until age 14.
Navtaj Singh of Pullman, 14, and in his last year of eligibility, correctly spelled "nouveau" and defined "vehemence" before being stumped by "subgum," a Chinese dish, in round 4.
Andrew Ford of Sandpoint, 14, successfully spelled "svarabhakti" — a word of Sanskrit origin that describes introducing a vowel between consonants — and had no trouble defining "trespass" in round 2. But in round 3, a written test that was added to this year's bee, he didn't meet the threshold to advance.
Sonu Murali Mohan of Boise, 11, spelled "Ouagadougou," the capital of Burkina Faso, in the first round.
But he was tripped up in round 2 by the definition of "vicarious."
The National Spelling Bee finals take place in prime time on Thursday and will air on ION Television, which is owned by Scripps, starting at 5 p.m.
Orion Donovan Smith's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
