Mid-Hudson Valley students competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. How to watch

Dutchess and Orange counties are going to be represented by two spellers this year in the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Eli McNair, a 13-year-old eighth grader from South Middle School in Newburgh and Noah Kaplan, a 12-year-old seventh grader from Van Wyck Junior High School in Wappingers Falls are two of the 13 competitors from New York this year and will be speller 142 and speller 143, respectively.

Kaplan previously competed in 2023 and tied for 122nd place. There has only ever been five New York champions since the competition was established in 1925, with winners in 1976, 1997, 2013, 2014 and 2016.

Who is competing in the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee

There will be 245 contestants this year, whose ages range from 8 to 15, with students from third grade to eighth grade participating.

Of those participants, 65 including Kaplan will be coming back to compete again. There are also 12 competitors from outside the 50 states, traveling into Maryland from places including Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

The contestants are representing 173 public schools, 32 private schools, 21 parochial schools, 12 charter schools and 7 homeschools.

Look inside: This NY diner serves Cheez-It-themed food, milkshakes for a limited time

How to watch 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee

The preliminaries begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday, May 28 and will run until 7:40 p.m. The 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee will be streamed on ION Plus, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com. The quarterfinals and semifinals will also be streamed on these platforms on Wednesday, May 29, from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. and 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., respectively.

There will also be a special semifinals broadcast airing later Wednesday evening from 8-10 p.m. on IONand Scripps News, as well as Bounce, Grit, ION Mystery, Laff and Defy TV.

The finals will air live on ION from 8-10 p.m. on Thursday, May 30. To find ION in your area, check out iontelevision.com/find-us. You can also watch the finals on Grit, ION Mystery, Laff, Defy TV and Bounce.

If you miss the finals Thursday, it will be rebroadcasted on Scripps News Friday, May 31, from 10 p.m. to midnight, and on Saturday, June 1, from midnight to 2 a.m.

Visit spellingbee.com/watch and enter your zip code for specific instructions on how to watch the Bee in your area.

Who won last year?

The 2023 champion was Dev Shah, representing SNSB Region One Bee in Largo, Florida. Dev won by correctly spelling "psammophile."

There are four 2023 finalists who will be competing again this year, including Sarah Fernandes, who tied for 10th place; Tarini Nandakumar, who finished ninth; Aryan Khedkar, who tied for fifth; as well as Shradha Rachamreddy, who tied for third.

What do the prizes look like for the winners?

Even if you don't win, all contestants competing on the national level receive a prize package from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, including Bee souvenirs and an official certificate of participation, a one-year subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, 2024 U.S. Mint proof set from Jay Sugarman, a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium, a one-year subscription to Epic Family, eight live, one-on-one online coding classes,powered by Byju’s Future School, as well as a one-year Tynker home subscription.

Quarterfinalists will also receive a commemorative pin and a $100 gift card. Semifinalists will receive a commemorative medal and a $500 gift card. All finalists also receive a commemorative medal.

In the finals, the seventh place contestant will receive $2,000, sixth place receives $2,500, fifth place receives $5,000, fourth place receives $10,000, third place receives $15,000 and the second place winner receives $25,000.

The champion of the Bee receives a $50,000 cash prize.

In addition, they will go home with a commemorative medal, the coveted Scripps Cup, the official championship trophy of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, $2,500 cash and reference library from Merriam-Webster, $400 of reference works, including a 1768 Encyclopædia Britannica Replica Set and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium, a $350 prize package including a SugarBee Apple gift basket and $250 gift card from SugarBee Apple and $1,000 Scholastic Dollars to be donated to the school of the champion’s choice in their honor.

The champion's school and regional partner will also receive an engraved memorial plaque.

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee: How, when to watch NY contestants