4 Chicago-area students advance to Scripps National Spelling Bee semis

Five Illinois students have advanced to the semifinals in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington.

The competition began Wednesday with more than 280 students from around the country, but only 46 spellers advanced to the semifinals using scores from onstage words and a computerized spelling-vocabulary test.

They include Yasir Hasnain, a 13-year-old from Forsyth; Lucas Urbanski, a 14-year-old from Crystal Lake; Alia Abiad, a 14-year-old from Western Springs; Meghana Kamineni, a 13-year-old from Lockport; and Christine Alex, a 13-year-old from Chicago.

This is both Urbanski, of Immanuel Lutheran School, and Hasnain's fourth year appearing in the national bee and the second year for Alex, of Whitney Young Magnet High School; Kamineni of Homer Junior High School; and Abiad of McClure Junior High School.

Semifinals begin Thursday morning and the Bee's 87th champion will be crowned in prime time on Thursday night.

The winner gets more than $33,000 in cash and prizes.

No more than 12 will advance to the finals Thursday evening. They'll have to spell two words correctly in front of a national television audience and then hope their score on a computerized spelling and vocabulary test is high enough to make the cut.

The semifinalists include last year's third-place finisher, 14-year-old Sriram Hathwar of Corning, New York, and two other finalists from 2013: 12-year-old Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, and 13-year-old Syamantak Payra of Friendswood, Texas. Syamantak and 13-year-old Mary Horton of West Melbourne, Florida, tied for highest score on the computer test.

The semifinals are broadcast live on ESPN2.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.