At the bee

At the bee

Max Lee, 12, winner of the Vindicator Regional Spelling Bee, correctly spelled “gauche” and “jnana” in the first two rounds Wednesday of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., to advance to the semifinal competition today. The Canfield Village Middle School seventh- grader earned 25 out of a possible 31 points in the preliminary rounds Tuesday and Wednesday. “That was our goal — to get him to the semifinals,” said Max’s mother, Linglan Liu Lee. Max was among 278 spellers in the preliminary rounds, which was whittled to 50 contestants for the semifinal portion.

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