Rockford, Freeport area schools send top spellers to 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee

Since 1925, children across the country have competed in classroom, school and regional spelling bees in hopes of making it to the big stage — the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee kicks off this year on Tuesday with preliminary rounds. The competition continues with quarterfinals and semifinals Wednesday and finals on Thursday.

At the national competition this year, the Rockford area will be represented by Ananya Joshi, a 12-year-old sixth-grader at Roscoe Middle School, and the Freeport area will be represented by Hendrix Feld, a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Pearl City Junior/Senior High School.

Joshi and Feld will compete with 243 other students from across the country, all vying to be the next Scipps National Spelling Bee champ.

According to Scripps, Ananya is a well-rounded student who enjoys playing the piano, building with Legos,, reading, learning Bharatanatyam, a classical dance form in India, coding on Scratch and writing essays and short stories. She is a member of her school's Science Olympiad team, quiz bowl team, student council and band.

Hendrix enjoys learning and building new things, Scripps said, and is a member of his school's Lego League robotics team. He hopes to pursue an engineering or science-based career. His favorite historical figure is Benjamin Franklin and his favorite musician is The Weeknd.

All of the spellers range in age from 8 to 15. They come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Texas has the largest representation with 20 national competitors. California and Ohio are next with 17 each, followed by Florida, Illinois and New York with 13 each. Twelve competitors are from outside the United States, representing the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

More than 70% of the students are competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee for the first time.

Preliminary rounds are held 9 a.m. to 8:40 p.m. on Tuesday, quarterfinals at 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and semifinals at 9 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday, and finals at 9 to 11 p.m. on Thursday.

The preliminaries and quarter finals will be televised on Ion Plus, and the semifinals and finals will be televised on Ion TV. All rounds of the competition will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Chris Green is a Rockford Register Star general assignment reporter. He can be reached at 815-987-1241, via email at cgreen@rrstar.com and X @chrisfgreen.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Roscoe, Peal City, Illinois, students at Scripps National Spelling Bee