Associated Press
|
AP
May 28th, 2026
Updated May 29, 2026,
10:18 AM EDT
Peachtree Middle School sixth-grader Sarv Dharavane outlasted 245 of the 247 spellers in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, coming in third place during the competition’s finals on Thursday night after getting tripped up on the word “disa.”
This was the 12-year-old Dunwoody resident’s third try at winning the national competition. He came in 22nd in 2024 and third place last year. He has two more years of eligibility left.
Dharavane won his third straight Georgia Spelling Bee in March.
Fourteen-year-old California resident Shrey Parikh beat Ishaan Gupta to take the national title.
Parikh took an unusual route to the title. He finished third in 2024, but last year he was absent. He missed his regional bee, too — because, woozy from a virus that caused a fever, he blanked on the word “calipers” and bowed out of a competition that any speller of his talent would consider child’s play: the spelling bee at Day Creek Intermediate School.
“Right now I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m just so happy and relieved, and just such a flood of emotions,” Parikh said. “At my school bee last year, I was really dejected and just very upset. It didn’t even sink in until the next day. I had a really tough time, but I’m glad I was able to bounce back.”
Dharavane takes a rare path to spelling bee prominence
Dharavane was a relative unknown in the spelling community when he made it to the finals last year. There’s a reason for that. He has no coach. He doesn’t participate in online bees. And his only study guide is the source for every word in the competition: Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary.
“The book is my coach,” Dharavane said.
Given his past success, he saw no reason to change it up. And he made it back in the finals.
“I didn’t really change anything because my strategy got me far last year, but I did more of what I did before,” Sarv said.
“I used to read the dictionary and set aside difficult words to study later,” he explained. “I did it a lot, so I got a lot of words and it was really easy just to go through them. I’ve always been able to remember pretty well, and I can read through long lists without getting tired, so this strategy works pretty well for me.”
Evans-based Stallings Middle School seventh grader Sreeya Lakkimsetti also represented Georgia at the national competition this week. She made it all the way to the seventh round and finished tied for 30th place.
WABE News contributed to this report.
