16 Bay Area students competing for title of National Spelling Bee champion

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland (KGO) -- Sixteen students from the Bay Area are still in the race for the title of National Spelling Bee champion.

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The preliminaries of the Scripps National Spelling Bee are underway -- Tuesday was round two.

Sixteen of the 18 Bay Area contestants spelled correctly and move on to the next round. There were 500 students competing in the preliminary round.

Last year's winner was a 12-year-old girl from Fresno.

Click here for more information about the Scripps National Spelling Bee.