Harini Logan won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, claiming victory in a blistering, first-of-its-kind spell-off that capped a marathon duel of one arcane term after another.
Harini, 14, an eighth grader from San Antonio, beat Vikram Raju, 12, a seventh grader from Denver, after she rattled off word after word in a 90-second speed round. She spelled 21 words correctly in that time, compared with 15 for Vikram.
Harini managed to spell through more words than more than 230 other competitors at the national level, including 12 other finalists. Words in the final rounds included scyllarian, pyrrolidone, Otukian and Senijextee, reflecting how, over nearly a century of national spelling bees, the words have become increasingly esoteric.
But students have kept pace with terms out of botany, medicine, folk art and other specialist realms, so much so that, in 2019, eight students were crowned co-champions. In turn, contest organizers have created new rules in recent years, including a component to test word meaning and the spell-off, a potential “lightning” tiebreaker round.
Last year, a 14-year-old, Zaila Avant-garde, made history as the first Black American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The triumph added to an already formidable résumé for Zaila: Not yet in ninth grade, she held three Guinness World Records for dribbling, bouncing and juggling basketballs.
Her success was also a victory for the Scripps organization, which canceled the 2020 bee because of the pandemic and conducted most of the 2021 bee in a virtual format. This year’s contest was the first fully in-person bee since 2019, and the first in years not to be broadcast on ESPN.
Scripps brought back the word meaning round, which claimed five spellers, including Kirsten Santos, 11, of Texas, one of the youngest finalists and a speller competing at Scripps for the first time.
After the word meaning round, only three spellers were left, but the judges reinstated Harini after concluding that the definition she gave for the word pullulation could be construed as correct.
“Harini getting out was horrible and unexpected,” said Zaila, who watched the finals live at the bee and was in the “losers’ lounge” with the eliminated spellers. “Everybody literally screamed when that bell rung.”
Maria [email protected] The New York Times Company
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