AUSTIN (KXAN) — Twenty Texans — including three from the Houston area — buzzed their way into qualifying for this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, with 15 advancing to the quarter finals rounds Wednesday. The competition runs through Thursday evening, with a winner poised to be crowned around 9 p.m. CT.
The three from the Houston area, all sponsored by Houston Community College, include:
Ishika Varipilli: 13-year-old eighth grader from Houston
Varipilli is in the National Spelling Bee for the third year in a row. She tied for 23rd place last year. She represents Tomball ISD by going to Creekside Park Junior High School.
Ishika won the 2024 Regional Spelling Bee and has been regionals the last five years. In order to capture first place, her winning word was: “scrannel”. During the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee, Varipilli competed in eight rounds against 79 contestants.
Her favorite writing style is personal narrative writing.
Vir Lagad: 11-year-old fifth grader from Houston
Lagad goes to Wells Elementary School in Cy-Fair ISD and heplaced third at the Regional Spelling Bee on March 23.
Lagad correctly spelled the word“yagi”in the ninth round to secure a spot in the national bee.“Yagi”is a type of directional antenna consisting of two or more parallel antenna elements in an end-fire array.
“This has been a fun journey so far,” he said. “I’m very happy and proud to represent CFISD and Wells at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.”
Lagad won the 2024 CFISD Elementary School Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word“nucleated”in the ninth round and qualified for the regional bee.
Vir is also a black belt in tae kwon do.
Kirsten Tiffany Santos: 13-year-old eighth grader from Richmond
Santos, who goes to the International Leadership of Texas — Katy Middle School, is making her third straight appearance at the National Spelling Bee. She was a finalist and finished tied for fifth at nationals in 2022.
But in 2019 when she was 8 years old, Santos won the National Spanish Spelling Bee, even though Spanish is not her first language.
Kirsten is the first chair violinist of her school orchestra.
The other 17 qualifiers from Texas included the following students:
- Sariah Titus: 11-year-old sixth grader from Abilene
- Jayden Zheng: 14-year-old eighth grader from Amarillo
- Tarini Nandakumar: 13-year-old seventh grader from Austin
- Anthony Reyes: 14-year-old eighth grader from Corpus Christi
- Faizan Zaki: 12-year-old sixth grader from Dallas
- Sriya Gomatam: 14-year-old eighth grader from Dallas
- Chioma Egbuonu: 14-year-old eighth grader from El Paso
- Tanya Kadaru: 13-year-old eighth grader from Fort Worth
- Alejandro Martinez: 13-year-old seventh grader from Laredo
- Michael Tesfaye: 13-year-old seventh grader from Lubbock
- Caleb Giuoco: 13-year-old seventh grader from McAllen
- Shreeya Sivakumar: 13-year-old seventh grader from Midland
- Jaynard Quiray: 11-year-old fifth grader from Odessa
- Kooper Mikeska: 11-year-old sixth grader from San Angelo
- Siyonamithra Kandala: 12-year-old sixth grader from San Antonio
- Lucas Lee: 13-year-old eighth grader from Victoria
- Aarav Sargurunathan: 12-year-old seventh grader from Waco
The quarter-finals round began at 7 a.m. CT and runs through 12 p.m. CT Wednesday. Texans competing for a semifinalist slot are:
- Jayden Zheng, Amarillo
- Tarini Nandakumar, Austin
- Faizan Zaki, Dallas
- Sriya Gomatam, Dallas
- Chioma Egbuonu, El Paso
- Tanya Kadaru, Fort Worth
- Ishika Varipilli, Houston
- Kirsten Tiffany Santos, Houston
- Vir Lagad, Houston
- Alejandro Martinez, Laredo
- Caleb Giuoco, McAllen
- Shreeya Sivakumar, Midland
- Lucas Lee, Victoria
The semi-finals will continue Wednesday evening, running from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. CT.
More details on this year’s competition, including how to watch, are available online.
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