Four Illinois Spellers Vie for Top Scripps Honors

Four contestants from Illinois are battling 37 others to reach the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

 
Seventeen Illinois students were in the contest at the start of the spelling on Wednesday.
 
Pranoav Sivakumar of Barrington Middle School, Piper Wynne Winkler of Elgin Academy, Alia Abiad of McClure Junior High in Western Springs and Lucas Urbanski of Immanuel Lutheran School in Crystal Lake will take the stage Thursday afternoon.
 
They and the others tallied the most points in a formula that combined Wednesday's onstage rounds with a Tuesday computer test that included a section on vocabulary for the first time.
 
The finals are set for Thursday night. The winner of the 86th spelling bee gets $30,000 in cash and prizes and a huge trophy.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
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