Community Corner

Aurora Eighth-Grader Is One Of DuPage County's Best Spellers

Twenty-seven DuPage County students competed in the Spelling Bee Wednesday.

Hopes were high before Wednesday evening’s DuPage County Spelling Bee Final. Twenty-seven students, identified by red t-shirts, sat in the auditorium at Lisle Junior High School with their families.

“Are you going to watch the whole thing?”

“We’re going to watch you, so we’re going to watch the whole thing,” went one conversation between parent and child.

The participants whittled down to three finalists after nine rounds.

Prospect Elementary School eighth grader Sanjay Kottapalli misspelled ‘notarization’ in the tenth round, leaving the competition up to the champion and first place finisher.

Emma McDonnell from Herrick Middle School in Downers Grove and Francis
Granger Middle School eighth grader Ujwal Kiran didn't settle into those places without a good fight.

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Both girls went several perfectly spelled rounds, and both slipped up once (misspelling ‘corollary’ and ‘leviable,’ respectively).

But the word ‘accolade’ now gives Kiran one of her own—it was the word that sealed her championship after correctly spelling ‘taciturn.’

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Kiran will proceed to Washington, D.C. for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

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District 15 Marquardt Middle School, Tiara Washington, 6, echt (first round)

District 41 Hadley JH, Lizzie Fleming, 8, roodebok (first round)

District 58 Herrick Middle School, Emma McDonnell, 8, iterative (first place)

Whittier, Caira Heneghan, 5, gynarchy (first round)

District 61 Eisenhower, Aidan Kelly, bezoar (first round)

District 66 Lakeview JH, Vishal Sorakayala, 6, fourth round

District 68 Willow Creek, Austin Moca, 5, gopak (first round)

District 89 Westfield, Gabriela Zaro, 5, ninth round

District 181 Clarendon Hills Middle School, Sanjay Kottapalli, 8, notarization (tenth round, second place)

Prospect, Adam Tweardy, motif (first round)

District 204 Francis Granger, Ujwal Kiran, 8 champion

Gordon Gregory, Elena Kapur, 8, mesmerize (first round)

Gordon Gregory, Tarini Talluri

District 205 Churchville Affan Qadri, 8, luciform (eighth round)

Churchville, Amy Strauch, 8, vorlage (6)


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