Five Minnesota Youngsters in National Spelling Bee

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Five Minnesota youngsters participated in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The Star Tribune reports three didn't make it past the preliminary rounds earlier this week and two were eliminated Thursday in suburban Washington, D.C.

Maxwell Meyer, a seventh-grader at Minnetonka Middle School East, spelled both of his words correctly but was eliminated Thursday after failing to earn enough points in the vocabulary testing portion.

Christine Farnberg, an eighth-grader at Holy Spirit School in Rochester, was tripped up by the word "Syrette" Thursday.

Falling out earlier were Cade Klimek, an eighth-grader at Chisholm High School; Briana Joseph, a fifth-grader at St. John Vianney School in Fairmont; and Ammy Lin, a seventh-grader at Forestview Middle School in Baxter.

Gokul Venkatachalam of Missouri and Vanya Shivashankar of Kansas were crowned co-champions.