Sukanya Roy Wins 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee Contest

Every year, I watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee because it is amazing to see the talented minds of these young kids. My son often participates in the Spelling Bee competitions in school. Last year, he went on to be the School District Champion for Pocono Mountain. Although he didn't make it to the districts this year, he has hopes of going even further next year and possibly going on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He has gained some confidence after learning that a local girl, Sukanya Roy, won the national contest. This has given him hope that he may be the next kid from our neck of the woods to gain the coveted Spelling Bee Cup.

Sukanya Roy has been officially declared the winner of the 84^th Scripps National Spelling Bee. The 14-year-old student has competed in the competition three times, this year being her last. In 2009, she tied for 12^th place in the finals; in 2010, she placed 20^th. Students are only allowed to participate in the competition up until the eighth grade. Roy is in her eighth grade year at Abington Heights Middle School in Scranton, Penn., only a few minutes drive from my hometown.

Sukanya's competition was fierce and quite long. Once the contest boiled down to five contestants, it seemed like it could go on forever. Over 20 words were spelled correctly by these kids with no mistakes made. Some words were ones which most adults have never heard. The origins of the words varied from Latin to English with some Mayan and Sanskrit thrown in for good measure. Suddenly the competition boiled down to two. Laura Newcombe, #24 from Toronto-Ontario, Canada, became Sukanya's biggest competition.

As the battle heated up between Roy and Newcombe, the words became harder. Newcombe's first word against Roy was "hooroosh," which she spelled with ease. Roy's word was "orgeat." At this point, neither student seemed to be slowing down or even having trouble with the spelling of the words. But then came trouble for Newcombe with the word "Sorites," which has a Greek origin. She sounded it out, asked for the definition, origin, and for the word to be used in a sentence. She then attempted to spell the word, but added a "p" to the beginning. Some words with a Greek origin have a silent letter at the beginning which can throw a speller off guard. This left Sukanya with the chance to spell two words correctly to take home the championship.

Roy's next word was "periscii," meaning, "those who live within a polar circle, whose shadows, during some summer days, will move entirely round, falling toward every point of the compass." Sukanya's last word became her winning word: "Cymotrichous," which means wavy hair and which the judge used in a sentence that referenced Bon Jovi, became the winning word of the 84^th Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship.

Sukanya won't be competing again next year nor will second place winner Newcombe be participating due to their grade levels. However, there is some phantasmagorical, or a fantastic assemblage, of students to watch out for, like Arvind Mahankali (sixth grade), Sriram Hathwar (fifth grade), and Samuel Estep (seventh grade), who just might be the ones competing for the coveted champion spot at the 85^th National Spelling Bee. Or perhaps you might see my son under the glaring lights, asking the judges for word origins while his mom looks on wondering how he learned to spell such incredibly tough words.