Carmel girl, 13, is a semifinalist at national spelling bee

A 13-year-old Carmel student is a semifinalist at the national spelling bee.

Alekhya Ankaraju, an eighth-grader at Carmel Middle School, advanced after being one of 281 students, ages 8 to 15, who competed in preliminary rounds today of the 87th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. She will be one of 46 students competing Thursday in National Harbor, Md., to be the national champion.

According to a biographical sketch on the organization's Facebook page, Alekhya is a lover of science fiction and fantasy literature, especially works by comic book greats Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as well as the "Lord of the Rings" and "The Immortal Instruments" series.

The Carmel resident also is an accomplished singer and musician, playing both traditional Indian classical violin and Western classical violin.

After two preliminary rounds of on-stage spelling Wednesday that was by turns heart-wrenching, amusing and inspiring, 46 contestants made it through to the semifinals of the national bee.

Among the semifinalists are last year's third-place finisher, 14-year-old Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, N.Y., and fifth-place finisher, 12-year-old Vanya Shivashankar from Olathe, Kan. Joseph Cusi Delamerced, a 14-year-old from Cincinnati who tied for 12th place in 2013, also made the cut for the semifinals this year.

The competition Wednesday featured spellers from across the country and around the world. Some spelled words with their fingers on their hand or in the air, some motioned as if they were typing on a virtual keyboard, while others clenched their eyes shut as if looking for the answers on the inside of their eyelids.

"I know the word, but can you use it in a funny sentence please?" joked 15-year-old Jacob Williamson of Cape Coral, Fla., who went on to spell "raconteur" correctly.

A majority of the contestants made it through the on-stage spelling without missteps but were eliminated based on their scores in a written spelling and vocabulary test they took Tuesday. The semifinalists will participate in two more rounds of on-stage spelling Thursday. Based on how they do on stage and another written test, roughly a dozen contestants are chosen to spell in the finals that evening.

On Wednesday, the Maryland ballroom of the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., was packed with family members, spellers and others the bee dubbed "spellebrities" — past bee champions and alumni. Both 2009 champ Kavya Shivashankar and 2010 winner Anamika Veeramani were cheering on siblings this year.

More than 70 spellers had competed in previous bees and their confidence was clear. Case in point, 11-year-old Iowan Zander Reed. The 2013 bee veteran needed no definition or etymology or sentence for his word, "Holstein" (breed of cow).

"Holstein. H-o-l-s-t-e-i-n, Holstein," he said, before flashing a broad grin when a judge said "correct."

ESPN2 will carry the semi finals starting at 10 a.m. and ESPN will broadcast the finals live starting at 8 p.m. For a full listing of spellers and semifinalists, go to spellingbee.com.

USA TODAY and The Associated Press contributed to this story.