Batesville’s Cherry Mathis will make her third appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. today. She is the Mid-South Spelling Bee champion, representing Tallahatchie County, where she has just finished the eighth grade at Charleston Middle School.

The daughter of John and Keiko Mathis, she follows her older sister Meg, who competed in the Scripps National bee in 2004 and 2005.

The semifinals of the bee will be broadcast this morning on ESPN beginning at 10. The bee’s final rounds will be televised tonight beginning at 7 on ABC.

Cherry is speller number 242.