Eight students from Kane County have advanced from the semi-final round to compete in the final round of the state spelling bee competition.

The Kane County Semi-Final Spelling Bees were held Friday, Feb. 13, 2015, in northern and southern Kane County, in events sponsored by the Kane County Regional Office of Education.

The eight winners will continue to the final round on Thursday, March 12, 2015, at Pheasant Run. As part of the prize package for the final spelling bee, the winning student and a parent will be sent to Washington D.C. to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, courtesy of the Kane County Chronicle.

The Northern Kane semi-final event was at Dundee Middle School. The winners are (in order of picture, left to right):

1st Place — Simran Kaur, a sixth-grader at Liberty Elementary in Bartlett

2nd Place — Tejas Shyamsundar, a fifth-grader at Lincoln Elementary in Hoffman Estates

3rd Place  — Parin Keerthi, a fifth-grader at Cambridge Lakes Charter in Carpentersville

4th Place — Rohith Sanjay, a sixth-grader at Sycamore Trails in Bartlett

The Southern Kane was at Jefferson Middle School in Aurora. The winners are (in order of picture, left to right):

1st Place — Nicholas Wilson, a sixth-grade student at St. Patrick Elementary in St. Charles

2nd Place — Cal O’Connor, a seventh-grade student at Wredling Middle School in St. Charles

3rd Place — Daania Laliwala, a fourth-grade student at Fred Rodgers Magnet Academy in East Aurora

4th Place — David Hunger, an eighth-grade student at Jewel Middle School in North Aurora

• This article was written by Ellen Kamps of the Kane County Regional Office of Education.