NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Karthik Nemmani, 14, of McKinney, Texas was named the 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee champion Thursday night here at Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center after correctly spelling "koinonia."
He defeated the Bee's largest ever pool of competitors after 515 spellers took the national stage beginning Tuesday for three days of spellbinding competition.
"I had confidence, but I didn't really think it would happen," Karthik said. "I'm just really happy. This has just been a dream come true."
He wins more than $40,000 cash, the Scripps trophy, and trips to New York and Los Angeles for national television appearances, among other prizes.
But had it not been for a new invitiaional program, Karthik wouldn't have made it to the national stage.
RSVBee created the record-breaking pool of competitors, which prompted the Bee to add an extra day of on-stage spelling to the tournament.
Through RSVBee, spellers could qualify for the National Bee if did not win their state or regional bees but either won their school bee or had previously competed on the national stage.
Naysa Modi, 12, of Frisco, Texas took second. She misspelled "Bewusstseinslage."
Karthik had met Naysa on the spelling stage before the Scripps Bee, though. He was runner up to her in their county bee. When asked if having her up there helped him, he replied, "Yeah, I guess. I guess it gave me a little more confidence."
Sixteen spellers duked it out throughout Thursday night's rounds as they faced challenging words, but Karthik showcased his mastery of language with correct spellings of "condottiere," "miarolitic" and "jagüey," among others.
The finals got off to a rocky start when Enya Hubers, 12, from Ontario, Canada misspelled "kanone." Only nine spellers remained after the first round in prime time.
As the rounds dragged on, the pool whittled down.
Erin Howard, 13, of Huntsville, Ala., who tied for seventh last year, misspelled "funest," adding an extra "e" at the end of the word. Other spellers missed words like "perduellion," "fourrier,"
After Sravanth Malla, 14, of Haverstraw, N.Y., misspelled "cento," the Bee was down to its final five competitors in round 12 of the competition overall. Those spellers remained perfect for a round before Navneeth Murali, 12, of Edison, N.J., spelled incorrectly "gelinotte."
The Bee reached its final two spellers in round 17.
Like Karthik, three other prime time finalists qualified through RSVBee while the competition featured 238 RSVBee spellers overall.
"It's been great from the speller perspective. We see the program as a way to level the playing field," Bee spokesperson Valerie Miller told USA TODAY earlier this week.
Also new this year: Breaks for the voice of the Scripps Bee, Jacques Bailly — or "Dr. Bailly" to many of the spellers. The official pronouncer since 2003 and 1980 Bee champion, Bailly got his first chance to pass the microphone to colleague Brian Sietsema.
But when Bailly got his first free moments, he stayed in the room where the spellers competed. "I wanted to watch," he said with a laugh.
And Bailly got his well-deserved recognition during the finals when he quoted the song "Shake It Off" for the sample sentence for the word "pseudepigrapha," which Abhijay Kodali, 11, of Flower Mound, Texas, spelled correctly.
On-stage competition began Tuesday after spellers took a written test, which played a large part in determining which spellers qualified for the finals. Each speller stood in front of the microphone and saw the bright lights at least once as the Bee trimmed its massive pool Tuesday and Wednesday.
Yet amid the bigger Bee, returning spellers continued their dominance, even though a first-time competitor won. The prime time finals featured 11 students who had previously been to the national contest.
Erin, who was eliminated in round 10, told USA TODAY earlier this week that she felt pressure to improve from already stellar performance. "I'm trying not to make that my standard," she said Wednesday. "I just want to be happy however I place."
As for when Karthik knew he'd win with the word koinonia? "When I heard it."
Follow Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller
