Brian Liu, of Great Neck North Middle School, advances to finals of Scripps National Spelling Bee

A Great Neck North Middle School student will compete against eight other young spellers from across the country Thursday night in the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.

Brian Liu, 13, survived 10 grueling rounds of the competition, starting with Tuesday's preliminaries and continuing into the semifinals on Wednesday.

“The whole family is so happy for him,” Brian’s mother, Shuting Peng, said shortly after the last round ended Wednesday evening. “Brian’s very hardworking, so it really paid off.”

More than 240 spellers from every state and several countries, including the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria, earned a place at the competition this year, according to The E.W. Scripps Company, which administers the contest. Celebrating its 100th anniversary, the spelling bee is taking place in National Harbor, Maryland.

The final round will be held at 8 p.m. Thursday.

This is Brian's second time competing in the contest. Now in eighth grade, he placed 23rd in 2023, advancing as far as the semifinals before he was knocked out.

During the competition Wednesday, the teen maintained a calm demeanor as he asked the moderators for definitions of words, their origins and to repeat them. He was one of 40 competitors to participate in the semifinals before punching his ticket to Thursday's final.

The Great Neck teen was asked to spell words such as proteome — the complement of proteins expressed in a cell, tissue or organism by its genetic material — and diplosphene, which means a "median wedge-shaped posterior process on the neutral arch of the vertebrae of certain extinct reptiles."

In the eighth round, which tested contestants' vocabulary knowledge, Brian moved forward by defining meandrous.

"Something described as meandrous is: winding and rambling," he answered.

By round 9, only 35 spellers were left. Brian successfully spelled the word antipascha — the first Sunday after Easter.

"We saw him two years ago, he’s back with a vengeance," one broadcaster could be heard saying.

The 10th and final round of the night proved to be the most difficult, with about half of the 19 spellers who entered the round eliminated. Brian was asked to spell a word that means a red crystallin dye obtained from the root of a European plant that is used in beverages and fatty and oily pharmaceuticals.

"A.L.K.A.N.N.I.N," he said.

Two Long Island competitors

Brian was one of two students from Long Island who won a place at the national contest. The pair emerged out of 20 spellers from New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts to take the regional championship after a virtual contest March 8, Newsday previously reported.

Olivia Lipiec, 14, of Smithtown, was also making a repeat appearance. She had tied for 149th place last year.

This year, Olivia was again eliminated in the preliminary round.

The Accompsett Middle School student said Wednesday that she was excited to be in the Washington D.C. area for the competition and to represent New York.

"It felt great to be back there again. It’s a really great experience," she said. "The whole trip, it’s really fun to be here."

Her mother, Angelika Lipiec, said she was incredibly proud of her daughter.

"It’s important to remember that getting this far is an amazing accomplishment and she’s done it not once, but twice, so she’s earned this," she said.