Tanvi Rakesh is enjoying quite a winning streak. The fifth-grader from Longbranch Elementary School in Union, Kentucky, has won five school bees in a row and is now a repeat national finalist. She won the WCPO 9 On Your Side Kentucky/Indiana competition with the word "canoa." WCPO sends two regional winners to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Round after round, spellers competed at the WCPO 9 On Your Side/Scripps Ohio Regional Spelling Bee to earn a ticket to the national finals. Irene Calderon from Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati was the last one standing after she correctly spelled "Talmud." WCPO sends a second regional winner from the SE Indiana/Northern Kentucky area.
Defending champion, Adith Joshua George, an eighth-grader from Holy Angels School in Sidney, Ohio, is returning to the national finals where he is looking forward to "spelling with a little bit of fun in between." He correctly spelled "asana" and "segue" in the Lima News Spelling Bee to win a repeat trip to D.C.
Kris Patel, a sixth-grader at Horseheads Intermediate School in New York, battled a classmate at the end to win the Corning Rotary Club Spelling Bee. The bee lasted several hours and included 62 students. Kris said the experience was amazing. He's been practicing his spelling since he was in the first grade.
Mischa Abad, a fifth-grader from Somerset Academy in Henderson, realized the significance of her accomplishment when she won the Nevada State Spelling Bee. This was the first year the competition allowed fifth-graders to compete. Mischa had a big smile on her face after correctly spelling "cambio" and "palmette."
"Leechcraft" wasn't a word she knew, but that didn't stop Stephanie Lewis, an eighth-grader from Marrs Magnet Center in Omaha, Nebraska, from spelling it correctly to win the Midwest Spelling Bee and a trip to the national finals. This was her first appearance in the regional event. She thanked her father for coaching her for the past several weeks.
Hanna Closs, an eighth-grader at Lucas Middle School in Durham, North Carolina, is charting her own spelling path after watching her sister succeed for several years. Hanna won the ninth annual Duke University Regional Spelling Bee. Her winning word should give you an idea of the difficulty the competition reached in just 11 rounds — "ornithofauna."
Having one national finals experience under his belt, Aidan Veress, an eighth-grader from Gardiner School in Montana, said this year there wasn't as much pressure. His calm and cool demeanor helped as he worked through some tricky words in the Treasure State Spelling Bee. He took first place for the second year in a row when he correctly spelled "Talmud."
Alice Liu, a sixth-grader from Crestview Middle School, stayed calm as she anticipated each word in the rounds of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Spelling Bee. She bested 49 other finalists to earn a return trip to the national finals. She was one of the top 15 in the finals last year and is working hard to return to the finals in 2018. Her winning word was "alcheringa."
Iris McDonnell, an eighth-grader at Oswego Middle School in New York, will head to the Scripps National Spelling Bee after outlasting 25 other competitors in the regional event. She's been waiting and studying for a long time. She competed at the regional level for three years in fourth through sixth grade. Her final two words were "intaglio" and "edelweiss."