Students face off in the annual Arizona Spelling Bee: Can you spell the winning words?

Yahoo

16-03-2025

"Percipient" and "enteric" were the winning words in this year's Arizona Spelling Bee, a marathon six-hour competition spanning more than 20 rounds, where the state's top elementary and middle school spellers tackled increasingly obscure words.
From a pool of more than half a million Arizona students, 28 finalists took the stage at the Madison Center for the Arts in Phoenix on Saturday, successfully spelling words like "boiserie," "noumenon," and "exeunt." However, some faltered on "tenement," "rhizome," and "tonsillitis."
The top three finishers will represent Arizona at the centennial Scripps National Spelling Bee this May.
Esha Marupudi, a seventh grader from BASIS Chandler, claimed victory after competing in the statewide bee four times. This year marks her first qualification for the national competition in Washington, D.C.
"I'm excited to meet other spellers at the national bee," Marupudi said. "I feel that all the work that I put in these few weeks before the state bee paid off."
Marupudi dreams of being a singer and songwriter, and aspires to enter into the medical field.
"I can't believe I'm going to nationals," said runner-up Sumukh Tirumalasetty, a fourth grader at New Vistas Center for Education. His parents were grinning beside him: They promised him a puppy if he qualified for the national bee.
Tirumalasetty encouraged other students not to let fear get in their way of competing.
"I don't think they should feel scared about losing the spelling bee," he said.
Salman Rashid, a sixth grader at Harmon Elementary School, also will compete at nationals.
"For a lot of students, this is their sport," said Emily Ramirez-Lara, who organized the statewide contest as director of programs for the Arizona Educational Foundation. "They're really passionate about everything that goes into a spelling bee — the meaning of words, the origins, the science that goes into spelling."
"It builds a community and a network that sometimes these students otherwise don't have or can't find in their schools," Ramirez-Lara said.
One person watching from the audience was Aliyah Alpert, Arizona's spelling bee champion in 2022 and 2024.
Now a ninth grader, she is no longer eligible to compete, but she watched Saturday's competition closely. She tutored three of the students who made it to the statewide bee this year, which included champion Esha Marupudi.
As the judge announced each word, Alpert looked them up on her laptop.
"It's not that I mistrust any of the judges here, but I just like to have a second pair of eyes on there," she said. "Part of my job as a coach, I feel, is to be able to make appeals ... if I think my student, or another student, should have gotten a word right."
"She inspires the next generation of spellers," said Sricharan Marupudi, Esha's father.
Spelling fiend Aydon Morales, 10, also attended Saturday's bee — not to compete, but to prepare for next year. He explained that in Arizona, students must advance through classroom, school-wide, and regional competitions to qualify for the statewide contest.
'It's a hierarchy-like system,' commented Morales, a fourth grader, through a mouthful of pretzels in the lobby of the auditorium.
Morales, whose favorite subjects are coding, astronomy and geography, placed sixth in regionals this year, narrowly missing a spot in the state bee. Determined to improve, he attended Saturday's competition with his parents, Toula and Mark, who took notes on the most challenging words for future study.
The spellers know the rules of the competition inside and out. Morales understands that the contest revolves around a core list of 4,000 words, with 800 new ones added annually as older words are retired. However, if a bee lasts long enough — like Saturday's marathon event — judges can pull from the entire English dictionary. His face lit up as he described the range of questions contestants can ask at higher levels, from alternate pronunciations to word origins. 'It's so crazy,' he said.
Morales' favorite part of the spelling bee is other kids' sense of humor. During a practice round at the regional competition he qualified for, one kid was asked to spell his own name.
"He asked, 'What's the language of origin?'"
Asfarah Masud was on pins and needles Saturday afternoon as the competition entered its seventh round. Her son, Sufiyan Hossain, had been studying for the spelling bee for more than a year and was still in the running.
"It's so nerve-wracking," she said, laughing. "Even when it's not your child, whoever is up there, it's like, 'Oh my god.' ... I worry about every kid!"
Masud brimmed with pride telling The Arizona Republic how Hossain, a sixth grader at the charter school Eduprize in San Tan Valley, placed first in his schoolwide spelling bee, and second at the regional level, to qualify for Saturday's competition.
"These kids are serious. They study their butts off," she said.
Nalini Sammeta-Tirumalasetty, mother of the second-place finisher, said her son studied for two to four hours a day leading up to the contest.
'Spelling is his passion,' she said.
Patricia Messner, a language arts teacher at Pearce Elementary School, attended to cheer on one of her students, speller Kendra Hamberger, who made it into the final rounds.
"Kendra has been a spitfire," Messner said. "She has the confidence of a 30-year-old."
"Spelling is so important: It leads you to being a good reader, a good comprehender," said Marjaneh Gilpatrick, who serves on the Arizona Educational Foundation's board of directors and acted as lead judge in Saturday's competition. "It gives them the impetus to pursue all (kinds of) other academic areas."
The 28 spellers who participated in Saturday's event were, according to the Arizona Educational Foundation:
Bryant Banzhaf, Age 11, Grade 6, Rattlesnake Ridge Elementary School, Pima County
Rebecca Caulkins, Age 12, Grade 7, Heritage Middle School, Yavapai County
Zen Davlin, Age 14, Grade 8, Gary K. Herberger Young Scholars Academy, Maricopa Region 4
Ethan Escobar, Age 10, Grade 5, Hualapai Elementary School, Mohave County
Isabelle Garcia, Age 13, Grade 8, Kyrene del Pueblo Middle School, Maricopa Region 1
Marcelo Garcia Rojas, Age 9, Grade 4, Center for Educational Excellence, Maricopa Region 1
Riki Gross, Age 13, Grade 8, Oasis Elementary School, Maricopa Region 4
Kendra Hamberger, Age 14, Grade 8, Pearce Elementary School, Cochise County
Tyla Hoffa, Age 13, Grade 7, Maine Consolidated School, Coconino County
Peyton Hoglan, Age 14, Grade 8, Duncan Elementary School, Greenlee County
Sufiyan Hossain, Age 10, Grade 6, Eduprize Schools - San Tan Valley Campus, Pinal County
Carter La France, Age 11, Grade 7, Calvary Chapel Christian School, Pima County
Alessandra Lockard, Age 13, Grade 8, Branches Homeschool Community Central, Maricopa Region 3
Victoria Luna, Age 13, Grade 8, Estrella Middle School College and Career Prep, Maricopa Region 3
Esha Marupudi, Age 12, Grade 7, BASIS Chandler, Maricopa Region 6
Isaac Mendez, Age 12, Grade 8, Freedom Traditional Academy, Maricopa Region 5
Oskar Miranda, Age 10, Grade 5, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado Elementary School, Santa Cruz County
Ishan Nathan, Age 11, Grade 6, Gowan Science Academy, Yuma County
Marcelina Olivarez, Age 12, Grade 7, High Desert Middle School, Gila County
Sophia Paull, Age 9, Grade 4, Discovery Plus Academy, Graham County
Mahadev Poundari, Age 11, Grade 7, BASIS Scottsdale, Maricopa Region 2
Sami Rabah, Age 12, Grade 7, Dishchii'bikoh Community School, Navajo County
Salman Rashid, Age 11, Grade 6, Harmon Elementary School, Pinal County
Joseph Requadt, Age 10, Grade 5, Alpine Elementary School, Apache County
Jacob Schliekelman, Age 10, Grade 5, Ehrenberg Elementary School, La Paz County
Julia Sikorski, Age 13, Grade 8, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Grade School, Maricopa Region 5
Sara Suresh, Age 13, Grade 8, Adams Traditional Academy, Maricopa Region 2
Sumukh Tirumalasetty, Age 9, Grade 4, New Vistas Center for Education, Maricopa Region 6
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Students face off in the annual Arizona Spelling Bee