Harini Logan was declared the winner of the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee in a historic spell after multiple rounds left two spellers in a tie. It was her fourth participation in the bee.
“Honestly, so surreal,” she said of her win, calling it “a dream.”
In the final laps, both Vikram Raju, 12, and 14-year-old Logan first missed the words in a row – stumbling upon “Senijextee,” meaning “a Salishan people of the Columbian River Valley of Washington and British Columbia,” and “Powys.” , a Welsh geographic name.
story in the making as #seller231 Harini Logan ends a SPELLbinding career as a finalist in her 4th Bee. She compares her journey to a bowstring. With each bee’s disappointing finish, the tension grew and propelled her to an incredible finish. #Spelling Bee pic.twitter.com/qo0AXVGRtp
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) June 3, 2022
But Raju, a seventh-grader from Denver, was tripped up by “caul” in the next round – allowing Logan, who hails from San Antonio, Texas, to spell “sereh” correctly. But then she was tripped by “drimys”, meaning the two went on to the next round.
Raju then missed “Otukian” and gave Logan a chance with “Myricetin”. But she missed again. And everyone missed the next word: Raju, “pyrrolidone”; Logan, “Scyllarian”.
12-year-old Vikram Raju of Denver, Colorado, reacts after spelling a word correctly during the Scripps National Spelling Bee at Gaylord National Harbor Resort June 1, 2022 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. 234 accountants take part in the first fully personal Bee since 2019. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The judges then ruled that the two would face off in a spell, the first in the bee’s history. Each participant had 90 seconds to spell as many words as possible. Raju finished the round with 15 confirmed correct spelling words – but Logan edged him out with 22 words.
However, Raju told host LeVar Burton that he would be back next year. A three-time competitor in 2022, he will be eligible one more time.
According to the organizers of the bee, the bee launched this year with more than 11 million students in schools, local and regional bees.
Last year’s winner, Zaila Avantgarde, was the first African American winner in the history of the bee. The 2020 event was canceled for the first time since World War II.
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