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The Associated Press
Oxon Hill, Md.

Edina boy advances to national spelling bee semifinals

Spelling bee
Parents take photos of their children who are competing on stage during round two of the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee competition May 28, 2014 in National Harbor, Maryland. More than 250 spellers from the U.S. and seven other countries gathered to compete for the top honor in the annual spelling contest.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Forty-six competitors have advanced to the semifinals of the 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee, including Mark J. Kivimaki, who is in seventh grade at Valley View Middle School in Edina, Minn.

The spellers are all that's left from the 281 youngsters who began the week vying for the title of top speller in the English language.

All spellers appeared at least once on stage Wednesday, and their oral scores were combined with a computerized spelling and vocabulary test to produce the semifinalists.

Four Minnesotans were eliminated during the preliminaries: Alyssa E. Boynton from Murray County Central in Slayton; Kellen Rufus Rodriguez from Fairmont Junior/Senior High School in Fairmont; Shane DeSilva from Pacelli Catholic Schools in Austin; and Lauren Crabtree from Forestview Middle School in Brainerd.

The finals take place Thursday night. The winner gets more than $33,000 in cash and prizes.

The highlights Wednesday were the funny sentences uttered by pronouncer Jacques Bailly. The Bee uses a pair of comedy writers from Hollywood to add humor to the event, and some spellers looked disappointed if they received a word that didn't come with a laugh.