UPDATE: Local student Sydney Cho did not make it to the next round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. 

This year's Spelling Bee featured a record 518 spellers. Wednesday started out with 452 spellers and after hours of on-stage spelling, it was narrowed down to 321 spellers. At the end of the day, 41 spellers moved on, based on the scores from the written tests that spellers took on Tuesday.

The final round begins tomorrow. 

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The Scripps National Spelling Bee is underway in our nation's capital and among the hundreds of spellers is a local student from Kern County.

Sydney Cho, from Norris Middle School, won the county competition in March, earning a trip to the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.

The written portion and the first rounds of the Spelling Bee are taking place Monday.

On his first word, Sydney correctly spelled the word 'cassoulet'.

#speller66 Sydney Cho spelled the word cassoulet correctly #spellingbee

— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) May 29, 2018

Anyone wanting to keep up with Sydney can follow the Scripps Spelling Bee on Twitter or do a search using the hashtag #Speller66