Emma Sroka accomplished on Tuesday something she had not done before in her time competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee — she made it to the semifinals.
Sroka, 12, continued in today’s quarterfinals with the same energy she brought into the preliminaries. As she went three rounds completely focused, a moment of joy appeared on her face when she was told “congratulations, you are moving on to the semifinals.”
Seventy-four spellers out of 209 appeared Tuesday to compete in a virtual format and more than 40 were eliminated. Sroka, representing The Post-Standard | syracuse.com, moves on to face 30 other contestants to compete Sunday for not only a spot in the finals, but for the $50,000 top prize.
This is the first year that Sroka, a seventh grader at Auburn Junior High School, had made it past the preliminaries.
“I was surprised because I never thought I would make it that far,” Sroka said. “And then I made it past Saturday. And then today I made it past the first round and thought I’d actually make the semifinals.”
And then she did.
Sroka was selected to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee of 2020. When it was canceled due to the pandemic, Sroka did not complain — she prepared.
In response to the pandemic, Scripps National Spelling Bee made adjustments to the competition. Spellers for the first time would go round-for-round during the preliminaries. Tuesday was a slight return to normalcy, with each round being done with breaks in between.
For her first round, Sroka was asked to spell “Basque,” which refers to people who inhabit the western Pyrenees on the Bay of Biscay. After using every technique she could to spell each word correctly, from the language of origin to using it in a sentence, Sroka began spelling without hesitation.
The second round was a multiple-choice verbal question on the definition of a word, which was a new element added this year after normally appearing in a written test. Sroka had to define “palliatory,” which means relief or moderation. She was relieved when she was told she was moving on to round three.
For Sroka’s final round, she had to spell “epithalamium,” which is a song or poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom. As she spelled the word correctly, Sroka raised her hand to give a thumbs up to her parents.
Sroka competes to be one of the 10 to 12 selected to go ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida to compete in the finals.
Should she win the $50,000, Sroka wants to put it away for college.
The semifinals will be next Sunday at 7 p.m.
The official 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee live broadcast follows this schedule (all times Eastern):
Semifinals: 7 to 11 p.m. Sunday, June 27, on ESPN2 (Play Along version on ESPNU)
Finals: 8 to 10 p.m., Thursday, July 8, on ESPN2 (Play Along version on ESPNU)