Eli Jernigan lost his first spelling bee at the county level when he was in the sixth grade.
The loss didn’t discourage him at all. Instead, it lit a fire under his feet, and now he’s an eighth grader and the state’s champion speller. Not just once, but twice.
Jernigan is headed to Maryland for the second time in a row for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, held at the end of May in the world-famous Gaylord National Resort and Convention.
That means he and his family are headed for an expenses-paid trip to a swanky hotel, one that’s likely to include a meal at his favorite lobster spot, but a baseball game as well, plus a bit of sightseeing and shopping.
He’ll likely also tour the state Capitol, where there’s a slim chance he could catch a glimpse of President Donald Trump — though he’s not counting on that. The president is, after all, a very busy man.
Jernigan is also not counting on winning the nationals — though he plans to do his very best to represent Wyoming.
“There are people who spend almost every minute of their time studying for this,” he said. “Last year the champion said that on weekends he spends 11 hours a day studying and, on his weekdays, he spends five or six hours studying.”
Jernigan admits he likes playing hockey with his dad and video games with his sister a little too much for that kind of schedule.
Eli Jerrigan studies words for the Scripps National Spelling Bee championships in Maryland in May. (Courtesy Jerrigan Family) 
Eli Jerrigan right after winning the 2025 Wyoming State Spelling Bee. (Courtesy Jerrigan Family) 
Eli Jerrigan poses with his trophy with other winners after the Wyoming State Spelling Bee. (Courtesy Jerrigan Family)
Never Tell Him The Odds
Like Han Solo, famous for saying, “Never tell me the odds,” Jernigan isn’t focusing on his odds of winning either. Instead, he’s having fun practicing as many words as reasonable between now and the competition.
He spends at least a couple and sometimes three hours after school every night, once he’s finished after-school weightlifting. Depending on homework and other obligations.
Two nights a week, he meets with a fellow national championship spelling bee participant he met last year, while in Maryland. They practice words together over Zoom.
The two made an informal pact to return to Nationals again and rise as far as possible in the word battles to come. So far, everything is going right according to plan.
After Jernigan practices with his friend, his mom or his dad sometimes drills him on a selection of flash cards for another hour. During that time, Jernigan can spell between 100 to 300 words — depending on how hard they are.
The cards are sorted in a particular way, to help track where Jernigan’s skill is weakest. That helps him know where to focus next.
“For the state spelling bee, they give you a list of 4,000 words that could potentially be used,” Jernigan said. “And there’s an app that I can use to take little quizzes to test my word knowledge.”
Those 4,000 words are the same list for the national competition.
Jernigan and his friend both hope to make it to at least the quarter finals, where the prize for all participants is $100. But, if they can make it to the semifinals, their prize money doubles, and Jernigan feels that is also a reasonable goal.
Finalists, if Jernigan and his friend were to make it that far, can win thousands of dollars. Starting with 2,500 for the lowest prize and running on up to $50,000 for first place.
If Jernigan were to win first, he would put all but $1,000 of the money into a college fund.
The week-long event also includes side competitions for extra merchandise and other prizes. These include fun word puzzles and miniature spelling rounds.
“There’s also a party on the last day,” Jernigan said. “And there will be an entertainer/comedian or singer.”
Root Words Are Like The Force
In the Star Wars movies, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are always urging Luke Skywalker to “use the Force.”
It turns out that the spelling bee has its own version of the Force. They’re called root words and, like the Force, they’re the key to winning.
Because even though the participants are given a list of the 4,000 words that will be used for the state championship, those who only know the listed words will not survive the preliminaries.
That’s because the preliminaries also include random words from the dictionary, some of which must not only be spelled but defined.
“It’s hard to study the dictionary,” Jernigan said. “It’s not infinite, but there’s tons and tons of words.”
Root words, as well as prefixes and suffixes, separate masters from apprentices.
“When you don’t know how to spell a word, you can ask, ‘Does this word contain the root ‘tract,’ meaning to pull or push,” Jernigan said. “So, then you’ll know, ‘Hey, that’s T, R, A, C, T.”
The preliminaries are particularly hard for a reason — to eliminate as many students as possible, as quickly as possible.
It has three rounds which starts with spelling the very hardest “Three Bee” words, right off the bat.
We’re talking about words like syzygy — a conjunction or opposition of the moon and the sun or the planets — and lecithin — phospholipids from things like egg yolks and sunflower seeds.
Or how about tomography, chiffonade, Beelzebub, apocryphal, demulcent, extravasate or obliviscence.
Clearly, these are all evil words that have sprung from the heart of darkness to crush as many would-be spelling bee champions as possible.
But Wait, There Is Another
Jernigan has worked out some of his own tricks for improving his performance in the spelling bee, where nerves can cause unintentional mistakes, despite knowing a word quite well.
He’s learned to “just breathe” while he’s on the spot, and to trace each letter out on his hand as he says it.
“That just slows me down and makes me concentrate on what I’m spelling,” he said.
Spellers can also ask about a word’s origin, which can offer clues to the likely spelling. And they should also ask about the word’s meaning in case it’s a homonym — a word that has the same pronunciation, but a different spelling. An example would be “pair” versus “pear.”
Jernigan knows that, as an eighth grader, this is his only shot at the championship. The spelling bee competitions end with the eighth grade.
But it might not be his last trip to Maryland.
That’s because his sister, Taya, who is in the fourth grade has already begun studying spelling alongside her brother. After all, it is kind of fun, and doing well does have its rewards — like that all-expense paid week in Maryland at the swanky hotel with a swimming pool, an arcade, and a killer view of the Potomac.
Only time will tell if Taya decides to follow in her brother’s spelling bee footsteps. But Jernigan’s looking forward to the adventures ahead, come what may.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
