2012

The 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on May 31st, 2012. It was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, and 278 spellers participated.

One of the prizes this year was a CD-ROM of Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.

Learn more

About the 85th Bee

Champion

Snigdha Nandipati

San Diego, California

Snigdha Nandipati, age 14, sponsored by U-T San Diego, won the $30,000 prize by correctly spelling the word “guetapens.”

Snigdha Nandipati is a medical student at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She graduated from Yale with a neuroscience degree. She is also the author of A Case of Culture, a book about challenges that immigrant patients face when seeking healthcare in the West.

Location

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

at the Maryland Ballroom

Winning Word

guetapens(n)

GET-uh-pahn

an ambush : a snare : a trap.

This word is from a French word.

OFFICIALS

Directors

Paige P. Kimble

Judges

  • Mary Brooks
  • Joyceline Coleman
  • Blake Giddens
  • George Thampy

Pronouncers

  • Dr. Jacques Bailly
  • Dr. Brian Sietsema

SPELLER ROSTER

  • Sruti Akula
  • Thomas Aldridge
  • Christine Alex
  • Nejat Alkadir
  • Jabaal Allen
  • Shruti Amin
  • Megan Antoon
  • Ruth Anwasi
  • Olivia Archer
  • Roshini Asirvatham
  • Philemon Awan
  • Landry Ballance
  • Princeton Ballarino
  • Cooper Barth
  • Yad Bass
  • Michelle Beaulieu
  • Kimberly Belser
  • Kaelyn Bender
  • Tuli Bennett-Bose
  • Reena Benny
  • Sophie Bergman
  • Neha Bhardwaj
  • Dylan Bird
  • Ian Jef Bongalonta
  • Michael Bono
  • Amber Born
  • Maria Braga-Henebry
  • Nathaniel Britton
  • Spencer Brooks
  • Ann Marie Brown
  • Gavin Buehler
  • Cara Busheme
  • Bridget Byerlee
  • Molly Cahill
  • Frank Cahill
  • Karlesha Canady
  • Jae Canetti
  • Emily Carello
  • Parker Carls
  • Katie Carter
  • Clancy Carter
  • Paloma Cartwright
  • Noah Cassidy
  • Urna Chakrabarty
  • Nikitha Chandran
  • Sheena Chege
  • Heloise Cheruvalath
  • Sophie Choate
  • Isabel Cholbi
  • Sydney Christley
  • Justin Chuang
  • Emma Ciereszynski
  • Marcus Clark
  • Kayla Corredera-Wells
  • Dean Creedon
  • Philip Cummings
  • Rachael Cundey
  • Malie Curren
  • Katie Danis
  • Jessica Davis
  • Nickolas Day
  • Anuk Dayaprema
  • Mark De Los Santos
  • Ross DeLong
  • Zachary Doiron
  • Katie Dudding
  • Nathan Dugan
  • Lia Eggleston
  • Eboseremhen Eigbe
  • Casey Ellis
  • Victoria Epstein
  • Marcy Ann Ermitanio
  • Samuel Estep
  • Jacob Evers
  • Taia Fagerstrom
  • Nickan Fayyazi
  • Jeremy Ferguson
  • Adam Ferrari
  • Julia Fiksinski
  • Leland Finney
  • Reid FitzHugh
  • Patrizzia Fox-Beaudet
  • Nicole Frische
  • Madison Fuentes
  • John Fulton
  • Apolonia Gardner
  • Kennith Gonzalez
  • Lerick Gordon
  • Vaidya Govindarajan
  • Lena Greenberg
  • Emma Greenlee
  • Jonah Gunter
  • Shivali Halabe
  • Star Han
  • Pranav Haran
  • Alexandra Harper
  • Yusra Hashmi
  • Yasir Hasnain
  • Casey Hennings
  • Caitlin Hillery
  • Spencer Hipsher
  • Jordan Hoffman
  • Alex Howe
  • Ronan Howlett
  • Katie Hudek
  • Jacob Hunter
  • Sarah Hurlin
  • Shaheer Imam
  • Grant Innis
  • Hannah Jackson
  • Hannah Jackson
  • Zachary Jacobs
  • Dev Jaiswal
  • Whitney Jameson
  • Brian Jeffers
  • Rita Jennings
  • Ritvik Jillala
  • David Jones
  • Olivia Jones
  • Nat Jordan
  • LeeAnn Jose
  • Antony Joseph
  • Joshua Kalyanapu
  • Vedantanshu Kar
  • Sabin Karki
  • Emily Keaton
  • Greg Kessel
  • Vismaya Kharkar
  • Christian Kincaid
  • Katie Kirk
  • Madelyn Kirsch
  • Eva Kitlen
  • Elizabeth Koh
  • Ty Korsmo
  • Dharani Kotekal
  • Siddharth Kulkarni
  • Nick Lambert
  • Carter Lang
  • Mitchell Lange
  • Coralee LaRue
  • Claire Layne
  • Kevin Lazenby
  • Max Lee
  • Reagan Leonard
  • Sunny Levine
  • Naomi Li
  • Grace Li
  • Priscilla Liow
  • Jacob Longmeyer
  • Veto Lopez
  • Sam Lowery
  • Lori Anne Madison
  • Jack Maglalang
  • Meghna Mahadevan
  • Arvind Mahankali
  • Matthew Majerle
  • Rahul Malayappan
  • Pranay Malempati
  • Sanjana Malla
  • Nicholas Manfred
  • Aaron Manning
  • Andrew Marino
  • Aidan Markwick
  • Shayley Martin
  • Haruka Masuda
  • Isabella Mayo
  • Daniel McGarvey
  • Emily McGraw
  • Ryan McLellan
  • Dhruva Mehta
  • Kate Miller
  • Caleb Miller
  • Stuti Mishra
  • Adeesh Mishra
  • Jennifer Mong
  • Carson Monks
  • Sumaita Mulk
  • Camille Murphy
  • Manu Nair
  • Taggart Nakamoto
  • Snigdha Nandipati
  • Bisma Nasir
  • Simola Nayak
  • Pauline Negrete
  • Isabella Neubauer
  • Valery Nguyen-Au
  • Isabella Nilsson
  • Vishnu Nistala
  • Sam Nitz
  • Jack Nolan
  • Dylan O’Connor
  • Mira O’Donnell
  • Daniel Oster
  • Grant Pace
  • Julian Pacheco
  • Grace Park
  • Sierra Parker
  • Visha Parmar
  • Amulya Parmar
  • Jack Pasche
  • Roland Patricio
  • Trevor Paulsen
  • Margaret Peterson
  • Sarah Phillips
  • Megan Allison Pineda
  • Kavyapranati Pratapa
  • Katie Proffitt
  • Marissa Pruitt
  • Christopher Rademacher
  • Keerthi Radhakrishnan
  • Nabeel Rahman
  • Hunter Randolph
  • Kristin Ratliff
  • Aarish Raza
  • Kriyana Reddy
  • Chetan Reddy
  • Devin Reed
  • Andie Reidy
  • Michael Reiner
  • Grace Remmer
  • Simon Ricci
  • Thomas Rubio
  • Nicholas Rushlow
  • Ben Rydecki
  • Alen Saju
  • Marlene Santora
  • Christal Schermeister
  • Sarah Sedy
  • Jiwon Seo
  • Kuvam Shahane
  • Massoud Sharif
  • Kayla Sheffield
  • Sairah Sheikh
  • Jay Shirodkar
  • Vanya Shivashankar
  • Neloy Shome
  • Kitty Shortt
  • Olivia Simmons
  • Pranav Sivakumar
  • Venkatesh Sivaraman
  • Evan Smith
  • Joseph Snelling
  • Gina Solomito
  • Abigail Spitzer
  • Elise Stahl
  • Rebekah Stanhope
  • Emma Steimle
  • Andrew Stevens
  • Ned Swansey
  • Coleman Swartzfager
  • Alexis Tang
  • Sivateja Tangirala
  • Hannah Thomas
  • Luke Thornburgh
  • Mignon Tsai
  • Brett Tutton
  • Lucas Urbanski
  • Ashrita Vadlapatla
  • Tom Velik
  • Gokul Venkatachalam
  • Emma Vorenberg
  • Mwangi Wa Maina
  • Ethan Wall
  • Katharine Wang
  • Lily Wang
  • Zhongtian Wang
  • Angela Wang
  • Jared Ward
  • Tabitha Wells
  • Ian Wendt
  • Victoria Whited
  • Sophia Whittemore
  • Clara Wicoff
  • Caroline Willett
  • Austin Wood
  • Gifton Wright
  • Richelle Zampella
  • Matthew Zheng

* Winner
** Runner-Up