NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Two New York City boys, Srinath Mahankali and Cerulean Ozarow, sat side by side, their fingers tapping and feet and knees bouncing as they waited their turn for a chance at the national spelling bee finals.
When the 285 spellers were whittled down to 45 during preliminary rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday, Srinath and Cerulean didn’t make it.
Srinath, 12, advanced through both rounds of oral spelling. Cerulean, 13, spelled his first word correctly but stumbled on “discept” in the afternoon.
“I’m proud of it,” Cerulean said of competing in the bee. “But that one word!”
An incorrect word in Wednesday’s contests spelled automatic elimination.
The first round was based on a list of 400 words circulated to the spellers in April. In the morning round, 34 spellers heard the “ding” signaling a wrong answer.
It was Cerulean Ozarow’s first time making it to the national level of the Bee. (Siri Bulusu/MNS)
Spellers had no advance notice of the words in the afternoon round — only that they would be from the dictionary. Afterward, 171 contestants remained.
At the end of the long day, judges added the scores of the remaining contestants to the results of a written test the participants took Tuesday to determine the finalists.
Though Bayside, Queens, resident Srinath spelled both his words correctly Wednesday, he was disqualified because of his written test score. That was the case last year as well.
The seventh-grader at Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School 74 tied for 11th place in 2015. His brother, Arvind, took home the trophy in 2013.
Srinath enjoys participating in bee week, he said.
“It brings kids together on the common interest of the English language,” he said.
Encouraging words from his brother after the loss left him hopeful about competing next year, he said. He plans to spend more time on vocabulary this time around.
Cerulean, a seventh-grader at Hunter College High School who hails from Park Slope, Brooklyn, may be out but he’s not down. It was his first time getting to the national level, but he’ll have another shot next year.
Will he be returning?
“Of course, of course,” he said.
The spelling bee finals kick off again at 10 a.m. Thursday with the main event airing on ESPN at 8 p.m.
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