KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The annual Scripps National Spelling Bee is almost here.
Mariah Coffey from Harrisonville Middle School and Garrett Fry from Delta Woods Middle School will be returning to the national stage to compete.
"I'm going to Washington DC for the National Spelling Bee," Mariah said. "It's a really good feeling. I'm really proud of myself."
"It's a very different feeling this year," Garrett said. "This is my last year, this is my last chance so it's been an interesting year."
Whether studying on paper lists or the computer, they're excited for their second time around.
"I'm not nervous as I was before, whatever happens, happens," Mariah said. "It's just a good experience to go there and be in Washington, D.C."
Garrett described it as an "out of body experience."
"There's nothing I've ever done that's like it," he said.
Fry was in the semi-finals last year.
"Obviously my goal was to succeed, but I can't say I really expected to be where I was," Garrett said. "This year I set maybe too high of a bar now ... well, no such thing, now I'm trying to beat that."
His goal is to place even higher than last year.
Mariah's method this year is to just keep calm and study on.
"I do a lot of memorization , because I have a pretty good memory," she said. "That's like my main method of studying, so I memorize a lot and then just keep calm at the competition."
Garrett, who will be heading to high school in the fall, will have his last chance to compete in the spelling bee next week.
"This is the bookend to a very long and a very successful journey for me," Garrett said. "It's changed my life. I would not be where I am, anywhere I am without it."
Both Garrett and Mariah thanked their family and friends for their encouragement along the way.
Garrett will have a speaking part in this year's opening ceremony.
"I'm just really excited to be apart of this nearly century-old tradition," he said.
There will be 245 competitors.
Preliminaries start May 28. Quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will happen on May 29 and 30.
You can catch the semifinals and finals on Ion, starting at 7 p.m. CT.
