John Warner sixth grader Aanya Shetty advances to Scripps National Spelling Bee
After coming in second to her sister last year, Aanya Shetty was victorious Tuesday in the Columbia Missourian Regional Spelling Bee.
The 11-year-old sixth grader at John Warner Middle School advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
In round six, the only remaining contestants were Aanya; Claire Dunkin, a Jefferson Middle School sixth grader; and Callie Chitwood, a seventh grader at New Franklin Middle School. Thirty-four had started 90 minutes earlier.
After spelling "Mesopotamian" correctly in round five, Claire tripped up on "avarice" in round six. It was "kaleidoscope" that did Callie in.
Aanya spelled "varicella" correctly, then "gypsum" for the win.
She wrote the words with her finger on her palm before spelling them out loud, a technique some other spellers also used.
She visualizes the word when pretending to write it, she said after the competition.
The national spelling bee will be a lot different than the regional one, Aanya said.
"I'm excited to go to Washington, D.C.," Aanya said. "It will be a nice vacation."
Actor LeVar Burton will host the national bee.
Aanya's sister also is looking forward to going with her this time.
"It was a lot less stressful for me this year" not competing, said Aanya's sister Jiya Shetty, a 15-year-old freshman at Rock Bridge High School. She and their parents had joined her sister to congratulate her inside Smith Forum inside the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, where the spelling bee took place. The celebration included some unwieldy helium balloons.
There were 11 eliminated in round one. Five spellers remained after four rounds, where words like "occultation, "neonatology" and "lobotomy" got the better of spellers.
Roger McKinney is the education reporter for the Tribune. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.