Naysa Modi, speller 490 and last year's second-place finisher, made it through this round.
The Texas eighth grader spelled "séance" correctly. It's a meeting for the purpose of receiving spirit communications.
Naysa is at her fifth Bee. In addition to finishing second last year, she tied for seventh place in 2017, 46th place in 2016 and 50th place in 2015.