There are nine spellers left out of 247 in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and those nine include Avishka Dudala, an eighth grader at Rogers Middle School in Prosper. Avishka is competing in the Bee for the second time. If she wins, it’ll be the second year in a row that a North Texas student has taken home the very pretty trophy—last year, Faizan Zaki, who at the time attended C. M. Rice Middle School in Plano ISD, won the bee after 21 rounds, spelling éclaircissement for the win.
How did the other four students from the region fare? Krish Manjunath, an eighth grader at Coppell Middle School East, made it to the quarterfinals before he fell victim to the word “Delonix.” DeSoto seventh grader Benjamin Pearson and Burleson eighth grader Luke Sturlin were eliminated in the quarterfinals thanks to “stapes” and “cosmogony,” respectively. Euless fifth-grader Ridhaan Bhattarai was eliminated in the third round, which involved a written test.
The championship airs tonight beginning at 7 p.m., and will be hosted by ESPN analyst Mina Kimes and longtime Bee analyst Paul Loeffler. You can watch it on ION channels and at spellingbee.com. Want to try your hand at the vocabulary portion of the Bee? Try our quiz here and let us know how you did…