C-h-a-m-p-i-o-n: Andover middle-schooler prepares for Scripps National Spelling Bee

Taylor Eldridge
·2 min read

An eighth-grade student from Andover Middle School will be one of 245 contestants in the Scripps National Spelling Bee later this month near Washington, D.C.

Carey Chesire, 13, claimed his spot in the prestigious national event by winning the Sunflower State Spelling Bee in March and will compete against the largest field since 2019 from May 28-30 in National Harbor, Maryland.

Spellers will compete in four segments of competition (preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals) to determine the winner of the Scripps Cup. All rounds of competition will be available for streaming on ION: preliminaries (Tuesday, May 28, from 7 a.m. to 6:40 p.m.), quarterfinals (Wednesday, May 29, from 7 a.m. to noon), semifinals (Wednesday, May 29, from 7 to 9 p.m.) and finals (Thursday, May 30, from 7 to 9 p.m.).

Carey Chesire
Carey Chesire

Just for qualifying for the national event, Chesire will receive a prize package from Scripps, one-year subscriptions to Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, Britannica Online Premium and Epic Family, a 2024 U.S. Mint proof set and eight live, 1-on-1 online coding classes with a one-year Tynker home subscription.

Quarterfinalists will receive a $100 gift card, semifinalists will receive a $500 gift card and finalists will receive at least $2,000 with runner-up winning $25,000. The national champion receives $50,000 in cash, the Scripps Cup, an extra $2,500 in cash and reference library from Merriam-Webster, $400 of reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica, a $350 prize package from SugarBee Apple and $1,000 Scholastic Dollars to be donated to the school of their choice.

Chesire began his run to the national event with a victory at the Butler County Spelling Bee on Feb. 2 when he prevailed by spelling the word “intersperse” correctly.

Seven weeks later, Chesire competed against nearly 100 elementary and middle-school students at the Sunflower State Spelling Bee on March 23 in Salina at Kansas Wesleyan University. He correctly spelled the word “ahuehuete,” a cypress tree that is the national tree of Mexico.

“I’m excited,” Chesire told Butler Community College. “I think I can do well.”

According to his biography on SpellingBee.com, Chesire plays violin for the Wichita Youth Chamber Orchestra and also plays competitive chess. His hobbies also include watching soccer and his favorite television shows, playing video games and spending time with his family and friends.

He is one of two Kansas natives in the competition, joined by 14-year-old Olathe native Emory Jobe.

Kansas is tied for the sixth-most national champions with five: McPherson’s Jolitta Schlehuber (1958), Russell’s Robert L. Walters (1968), Topeka’s Peg McCarthy (1978), Olathe’s Kavya Shivashankar (2009) and Olathe’s Vanya Shivashankar (2015).