Two of New Jersey's seven spelling students will return on Thursday.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Two of the seven New Jersey entrants in the 89th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee reached Thursday's finals.
Ho-Ho-Kus Public School eighth-grader Rimas Chacar-Palubinskas, 13, and Bret Harte Elementary School fifth-grader Shruthika Padhy of Cherry Hill, 10, spelled both words correctly Wednesday and also scored high enough on the preliminary written test to join 43 other students on the final day of the competition.
Though five New Jersey students successfully spelled their words on stage during Wednesday's two rounds, the others didn't scored high enough on the preliminary written test.
How N.J. students fared in spelling bee
Those who failed to meet the threshold even though they didn't miss a word in the two rounds of spelling on stage were Miftaahul Uloom Academy eight-grader Nabil Ettayebi of Belleville, 13, winner of the 57th annual Jersey Journal-Hudson County Spelling Bee; Franklin Middle School eighth grader Henry A. Banta of Somerset, 13; William Davies Middle School eighth-grader Vivek S. Kolli of Mays Landing, 14; and Central Regional Middle School eighth-grader Justin Kyle Malabanan of Bayville, 14.
The other students were eliminated earlier. Julian J. Connaughton of Shohola, Pa., 13, a seventh grader at Delaware Valley Middle School who was sponsored by the Tri-State Spelling Bee Committee in Montague, misspelled "crotchety," meaning grouchy or cantankerous.
Then Justin Kyle Malabanan of Bayville, 14, an eighth grader at Central Regional Middle School, got "demibastion," part of a fortification, and spelled it wrong.
Last year, Katharine S. Wang of Morristown was the only New Jersey student who reached the semifinals in her fourth trip to the bee. She then misspelled cinqueciento, a term referring to the 16th century Italian Renaissance.
The last New Jersey student to win the bee was 13-year-old Katharine Close of Spring Lake in 2006, who correctly spelled ursprache, a language reconstructed from languages that came later.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook