Solehi Intermediate School Student Heads to National Spelling Bee

"Affianced" may have been her ticket in, but that's just the beginning for Naomi Li, the Southern Lehigh Middle School student on her way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Li, along with 60 other spellers from the region, competed in the 25th Annual Regional Bee March 25. It took 18 rounds to whittle the participants down to the final three -- Jesse Huang from Springhouse Middle School in South Whitehall Township; Aditya Rao, a Lopatcong Middle School fifth-grader from Lopatcong Township, and Li.

Six final rounds later, Li emerged victorious, but victorious she did emerge. Li took the title on a combination of "manticore" (a mythical creature) and the championship word, "affianced" (to be betrothed).

The Scripps Spelling Bee will include 275 students from the 50 states, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Schools in Europe; also, the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. Preliminaries will be June 1, with semifinals June 2 and finals June 3. All the rounds will be broadcast on ESPN.