Maine State Spelling Bee champion Sebastian Shields, a seventh-grader at Saco Middle School, made it to the third round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, but his name was not on the National Spelling Bee’s list of 50 spellers who advanced to Thursday morning’s final round.
Sixteen spellers from the group of 50 were to appear Thursday night on ESPN to compete for the top spot, according to a message posted on the National Spelling Bee website.
Shields, 12, left last Friday for National Harbor, Maryland – the site of the national bee – after receiving a rousing sendoff from his middle school classmates.
Shields won the right to represent Maine in the National Spelling Bee after outlasting 14 competitors in March’s Maine State Spelling Bee. His victory ended a five-year run of eighth-grade winners that began with Lucy Tumavicus of Portland in 2014.
According to Shields’ profile, posted on the Spelling Bee website, his great-grandmother, Vivian Bremer, won the Michigan state spelling bee in 1926. Shields correctly spelled vice versa and savagery before being eliminated.
A total of 565 kids came from around the country and world to compete in the national spelling bee, which began Tuesday.
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