San Diego Speller​​ Eliminated In 6th Round Of National Spelling Bee

SAN DIEGO, CA — A student from San Diego County was eliminated in the sixth round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee Wednesday.

Benjamin Evans, an eighth grader from Twin Peaks Middle School in Poway, misspelled "ravison," a rapeseed of an inferior quality. The 14-year-old tied for 23rd place in the competition at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Evans was among 45 spellers from the original field of 245, to advance to the semifinals after he correctly answered his fifth-round multiple-choice vocabulary question earlier Wednesday. He was asked, "Something described as sectarian is?" and selected "confined to the limits of one group."

Evans qualified for the national spelling bee by winning the 54th San Diego County Scripps Regional Spelling Bee in March at the Jackie Robinson YMCA in San Diego. Evans defeated runner-up Mihir Konkapaka, a two-time champion, who was eliminated in the fourth round of the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Only eight spellers advanced to the finals of the national spelling bee, which will take place Thursday.

The bee is limited to students in eighth grade or below and who were born Sept. 1, 2008 or later. Contestants for the 96th edition of the national competition are between 8 and 15 years old.

San Diego County has had two national spelling bee champions. Anurag Kashyap, a student from Poway, won in 2005, and Snigdha Nandipati, a student from Francis Parker School, won in 2012.