Karthik Dalai of Sebastian County claimed the 2026 Arkansas State Spelling Bee title last week, winning among a field of 56 county champions at the Arkansas 4-H Vines Center in Little Rock.
The 11-year-old East Hills Middle School student, the son of Venkata Dalai and Phani Kampella of Fort Smith, placed fourth in last year’s bee before capturing the title this year. He will represent Arkansas at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.
The runner-up was Viktoria Caril of Pulaski County. Daksh Singh of White County and Michael Jones of Baxter County shared third place. Fourth place went to Arav Ashish of Benton County and Kaylee Tran of Craighead County, while Carter Metcalf of Marion County, Warren Reynolds of Union County and Joshua Oh of Lonoke County placed fifth…