Indian Americans, winners of the past 11 Scripps National Spelling Bee, appear set to extend their dominance.
It’s that time of the year again, when all eyes are on the prestigious and highly competitive Scripps National Spelling Bee contest. The 2019 Scripps National Bee Contest, now in its 92nd editions, began on Tuesday at the at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC.
The final rounds of the Bee will be televised on Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 2.00 pm on ESPN. The finals will be starting at 8:30 p.m. ET and it will be telecast on ESPN.
In all, 565 spellers from all 50 US states and seven countries are taking part in the competition.The spellers are in the age group of 7 to 15 and in the grades from 1 to 8.
In recent years, Indian American students have come to dominate the spelling bee contests.
For 11 consecutive years, Indian Americans have won the competition. This year, out of the top 50 spellers advancing the finals, nearly half are Indian Americans.
Last year, Karthik Nemmani, then 14, of Texas, was crowned champion.
Several factors have contributed to the Indian American dominance of the Bee. The successes of the initial winners, along with the 2002 documentary Spellbound, which showed Indian American Nupur Lala winning the 1999 contest, inspired many from the community to treat spelling bee as a serious business. Breaking the Bee, a 2018 documentary, showed how the community prepares and takes prestige in winning the national level contest, with parents often grooming young nerds for several hours every day in preparation of the contest.
Here’s the complete list of 50 spellers advancing to the finals on Thursday
Rishik Gandhasri
Vayun Krishna
Anisha Rao
Pavani Chittemsetty
Lauren Guo
Simone Kaplan
Nidhi Vadlamudi
Sahil Langote
Amith Vasantha
Cameron Keith
Aisha Randhawa
Nathan Ostermann
Erin Howard
Nicholas D’Sa
Dhyana Mishra
Saketh Sundar
Anson Cook
Darian Douglas
Calvin Franke
Atman Balakrishnan
Cal Alexander
Joseph Moran
Pranav Chandar
Alice Liu
Yolanda Ni
Blake Bouwman
Melodie Loya
Aritra Banerjee
Jack Lado
Navneeth Murali
Colette Giezentanner
Shruthika Padhy
Brendan Pawlicki
Pranathi Jammula
Sohum Sukhatankar
Jeff Zheng
Phoebe Smith
Sebastian Castilla
Enya Hubers
Abhijay Kodali Nilla Rajan
Christopher Serrao
Jason Sorin
Sheridan Hennessy
Rohan Raja
Maitri Kovuru
Maya Jadhav
Harini Logan
Keerthana Krishnan
Hephzibah Sujoe
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