Schools

Roland Rogers Student Misses Cut at Scripps National Spelling Bee

Ebose Eigbe spelled both his words right, but was not one of the 50 finalists.

student run in this year's Spelling Bee has come to an end.

Despite spelling both his words correctly, Eigbe was not one of 50 spellers to make the cut for this year's semifinal round.

"There were three preliminary rounds, and this year's preliminaries were harder than last year's," said Scripps National Spelling Bee Director Paige Kimble as she announced the 50 semifinalists Wednesday night, May 30.

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She added that only one speller had a perfect score this year, a fifth grader from Kansas.

Eigbe earned the right to compete at the event after winning the Regional Spelling Bee at on Saturday, March 10.

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He won in 23 rounds. Prior to that, he won his school at Roland Rogers.

He spelled two words correctly on Wednesday, including exophthalmic  and ethylene.

"No matter what happens at this point, Ebose has a ton to be proud of, spelling two very difficult words correctly under the bright lights on the national stage," Roland Rogers Fifth Grade Teacher Brian Dunn said in an email prior to the announcement of the finalists. "Everyone at Roland Rogers is so happy to see Ebose represent Galloway so well in Washington!"

"He's definitely our champion, and he represented us well," he added following the announcement.

The semifinals begin at 10 a.m. Thursday morning, May 31, and will be broadcast on ESPN2. The finals are Thursday night, beginning at 8 p.m., and will be broadcast on ESPN.

The photos and video were provided by Roland Rogers Elementary School Teacher Brian Dunn. Eigbe spelled his first word right this morning, and will spell his second word during the 3:15 p.m. block, according to Dunn. Eigbe is #152. After that, his scores will be tallied from yesterday's computerized test and today's two words, and a maximum of 50 spellers will advance to the semifinals tomorrow, according to Dunn.


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