In his fifth appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Sriram Hathwar (Speller 154) said he was happy to make it back to the finals.
This time, he studied more for the Bee, he said.
"I really just tried to prepare as much as I could," he said.
He's also made more friends.
"Everything is just fun," he said. "Each one has been more fun than the last."
Sriram is an eighth grader from Painted Post, New York.
He misspelled "corpsbruder," a close comrade. If Ansun Sujoe (Speller 237) spells two words correctly in a row, he is the champion.