‘Myelocyte’? No problem for Keller 5th-grader, who’s headed to national spelling bee
Vivinsha Veduru on Tuesday solidified her title as the best speller among elementary and middle school students in the region for 2021 with 39 out of the 50 test words spelled correctly.
The 10-year-old did it by winning the 2021 Regional Scripps Spelling Bee with the word “myelocyte”, hosted virtually by Texas Christian University.
The spelling bee this year was conducted with an online test where competitors typed out the words.
Vivinsha, a fifth-grade student at Bear Creek Intermediate School in Keller, will go on to compete at the national Scripps Spelling Bee. Two years ago she was the third runner-up for the regional spelling bee, according to one of her mentors.
The national finals will be held July 8 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The finals were canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Vivinsha will represent eight Texas counties at the finals: Tarrant, Denton, Parker, Palo Pinto, Wise, Johnson, Hood and Bosque.
Zachary Cusano, 14, an eighth-grader at Fort Worth’s Stripling Middle School, came in as the runner-up with 30 of the 50 test words spelled correctly.
The spelling bee looked much different this year as the competition was moved online during the pandemic. A traditional spell-down, where contestants orally recite spellings, was reserved for the possibility of a tie in the written test.
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 5:10 PM.