On February 3rd, 2021 Eliana Szabo competed in the Scripps online Central Minnesota Spelling Bee sponsored by Resource Training & Solutions. For the second year in a row Eliana, the 8th grader from HEY-Home Educated Youth, qualified for a chance to compete in the Scripps online Multi-Regional State Spelling Bee, starting February 16th. In an unusual turn of events the Multi-Regional Bee came down to a tie!

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After two tie breaker rounds, on February 23rd, Eliana Szabo became the 2021 Multi-Regional Bee Champion by spelling "palatial" correct. Marielle Johnson, 7th grader from Duluth Ordean East, was the runner-up. Eliana will now advance to theScripps National Spelling Bee to compete against the top spellers from across the U.S. and globe. The National Bee will be held on July 8th in Orlando, Florida.

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Spellers will compete in three levels of virtual competition: the preliminary, quarterfinal and semifinal segments to get to the finals. The final rounds of this year’s National Bee will be hosted in person at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort. The finals, featuring 10-12 accomplished spellers, will be broadcast live in primetime on ESPN2.

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We are very excited that for the second year in a row, the student that will be representing Minnesota at the National Bee will be from our region. We would like to wish the best of luck to Eliana as she competes for the chance to become the Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion! We would also like to congratulate all of the spellers that competed in this year's Regional and Multi-Regional Competitions.

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