2025 Spelling Bee: How two central Ohio kids did in preliminaries
Fifteen kids from Ohio are among the 243 spellers in the 2025 competition with the preliminary round taking place on Tuesday. Among those Ohioans is Columbus-native Avinav Prem Anand, 14, who is sponsored by the Blue Jackets and is competing in his fourth consecutive spelling bee.
The eighth grader from Orange Middle School had his best finish last year when he came in 22nd place. He is also moving on to Wednesday's quarterfinals after spelling 'Sapporo' right and correctly defining expostulate as his vocabulary question.
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Making his spelling bee debut is 10-year-old Joseph Keffer, a fifth grader from Athens at Chesapeake Middle School. He is being sponsored by Ohio University's journalism school and is one of the three youngest competitors from the Buckeye State.
Keffer spelled the word 'furan' correctly and got his multiple-choice vocabulary question correct, sending him to the quarterfinals. Anand and Keffer are two of 183 spellers to advance to the quarterfinals, which begin at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
If Anand and Keffer can stay perfect in spelling, they will compete in Wednesday night's semifinals and hope to appear in Thursday evening's finals.
In the 100-year history of the Spelling Bee, nine Ohioans have won with all hailing from either Akron, Cleveland, or Canton. The first Ohioan to win was Dean Lucas of Akron in 1927, the third edition of the Bee. The most recent Ohio winner was Anamika Veeramani of Cleveland in 2010.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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