LOS ANGELES (CNS) - An eighth-grader from Diamond Bar advanced to the third round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee Tuesday, topping his performance from last year, while Orange County's lone speller also advanced to the third round.
Justin L. Tran correctly spelled renminbi, the official currency of the People's Republic of China, in the first round, then correctly answered his second-round multiple-choice word meaning question, "Something described as reverberant:" selecting "tends to repeat in echoes."
Justin was eliminated in the first round of the 2022 bee when he misspelled catjang, a plant in the pea family native to Africa, spelling it katjang.
"It was very surreal competing in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee, and although I didn't make it far, I had a great time doing it," Justin told City News Service in an email interview Monday. "I met a lot of like- minded people, and visited many interesting places.
"I learned that you can never be too prepared for something and you should be careful to always do your best."
With the bee limited to students in eighth grade or below, this will be the final bee for the 13-year-old who attends Chaparral Middle School. When asked what his goal was, Justin said "I'd obviously like to win, but I'd be happy with any place in the finals."
The 10 to 12 finalists will be known around 3:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Wednesday.
The third round is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 1:25 p.m. PDT at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland and will be streamed on spellingbee.com, ION Plus and Bounce XL.
Justin will be the fifth speller to compete, while Aaron Lim, an eighth-grader from Anaheim Hills, will compete seventh.
In Tuesday's first round, Aaron correctly spelled cephalopod, a noun meaning any of a class of marine mollusks who move by expelling water from a tubular siphon under the head and have a group of muscular usually sucker- bearing arms around the front of the head, highly developed eyes, and usually a sac containing ink which is ejected for defense or concealment.
The El Rancho Charter School eighth-grader correctly answered his word- meaning question, "Another word for seraphic is:" correctly selecting sublime.
"My goal is to do the absolute best I can, but most of all, have fun, make friends and experience all I can at Bee Week," Aaron told CNS in an email interview.
The quarterfinals and semifinals will be held Wednesday and the finals Thursday.
The national bee began Tuesday with a field of 231 spellers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, the Bahamas, Germany and Ghana.
The bee is limited to students in eighth grade or below. Contestants for the 95th edition of the national bee range in age from 9 to 14.
The winner will receive $50,000 from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, $2,500 and a reference library from the dictionary publisher Merriam- Webster and $400 in reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and a three- year membership to Britannica Online Premium.
No contestant from Los Angeles or Orange counties has ever won the bee.