When the Scripps National Spelling Bee began on Tuesday with 243 young hopefuls vying for the top spot, and six students from LA Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties among them, only one local contestant remained by Wednesday evening after 10 grueling rounds.

By the end of Round 10, the nationwide field had been ground down to nine, and among them was Oliver Halkett, 13, of the Merman School in Brentwood, who correctly spelled “gobbe” to stay in the competition.

The Bee continues with the final rounds on Thursday in National Harbor, Maryland.

To get to the 10th round, Oliver had to also:

• Spell “aeolight”
• Answer the question “What is a juggernaut?” (A massive, crushing force)
• Spell “mashlum”
• Spell “opihi”
• Answer the question “If something is done gingerly, it is done:” (with extreme care)
• Spell “polymorphism”
• Pass a written spelling test
• Answer the question: “Something described as toilsome is:” (characterized by tiring work)
• Spell “becquerel

Also in the 10th round, Hannah Kuo, 12, of Granite Mountain Charter School in Lucerne Valley, ended her Spelling Bee journey when she failed to correctly spell “bromyrite.” In the 9th round, she correctly spelled “ophion.”

In the 6th round, Victoria Li, 11, of Philistine Rondo School of Discovery in Eastvale incorrectly spelled “ablegate,” and dropped out of the competition. To get there, she correctly answered the 5th round vocabulary question, “What does it mean to gesticulate?” (to move the body or limbs when talking).

Local students who began the competition included Sydney Tran, 13, of El Rancho Charter School in Anaheim; Kamya Balaji of Notre Dame Academy in the Rancho Park area of Los Angeles; and Angeline Wang, 11, of Caryn Elementary School in Rancho Cucamonga.

Spellers who made it to the quarterfinals — including Oliver, Hannah and Victoria — receive a $100 gift card and a commemorative pin from the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

All the spellers receive a prize package, including bee souvenirs and an official certificate of participation from the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster; a one-year subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online; a 2025 U.S. Mint proof set; and a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium News-O-Matic.

On Tuesday, 99 spellers from the original field of 243 advanced to the quarterfinals after scoring high enough on the third-round written test administered to contestants who had correctly spelled their first-round word correctly and provided the correct answer to the second-round vocabulary question.

The scores of the written test were not released. Those who scored at least 13 on the test advanced to the quarterfinals, bee organizers said. The maximum score was 35.

Under bee rules, spellers were grouped by their number of correct answers. The number of spellers of advancing was determined by identifying the group whose minimum score resulted in as close to 100 quarterfinalists as possible.

The field was 165 entering the written test.

The bee began with spellers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Department of Defense schools and five nations outside the United States — the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.

There were 42 spellers eliminated in the first round and 18 in the second.

The bee is limited to students who have not have passed beyond the eighth grade or an international equivalent on or before Aug. 31, 2024 and who were born on Sept. 1, 2009 or later.

The bee will conclude Thursday. The winner will receive $50,000 from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, $2,500 and a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $400 in reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica including a 1768 Encyclopedia Britannica replica set and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium.

This is the 100th anniversary of the first national spelling bee, which was held on June 17, 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers around the country to hold spelling bees and send their champions to Washington, D.C.

This is the 97th edition of the bee. There were no bees in 1943, 1944 and 1945 because of World War II and in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Six Californians have won the national bee but none was from Riverside County.