After 27 rounds of spelling in the Middle School spelling been on Jan. 20, Baylor eighth grader Alisha Chandra prevailed as champion for the third year in a row and will now compete in the 2021 Zone spelling bee on Feb. 9.
Other Baylor qualifiers for the Zone bee are seventh grader Piper Ryan (runner up), and sixth grader Jacob Tate (second runner-up). Sixth graders Eva O’Kelley and Frank Treadwell finished in fourth and fifth place respectively and will serve as alternates. Chandra, Ryan,and Tate competed for seven rounds which included spelling words that they had not previously been given to study. The winning word was: Supplementary (sup-ple-men-ta-ry).
As a seventh grader, Chandra won the regional level of the Scripps National Spelling Bee last March and was set to compete in the national bee May 24 - 29, 2020 at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. The event was cancelled for the first time since 1945 due to COVID-19.
A total of 20 students qualified to compete in the 2021 Baylor spelling bee by earning high scores on a spelling test given to all students in the middle school. The contestants included:
Eighth Grade:
Alisha Chandra
Julia Gardner
Max Hickman
Reed Martin
Soriyah Ware
Seventh Grade:
Nathan Blake
Wesley Chi
William Hubbard
Carlee Rogers
Piper Ryan
Hunter Shaw
George Stowe
Sixth Grade
Christopher Farnham
Brodi Headrick
Tate Hilley
Eva O’Kelley
Neela Soni
Riley Swinford
Jacob Tate
Frank Treadwell