2013

The 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on May 30th, 2013. It was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, and 281 spellers participated.

This year, in efforts to expand the Bee’s mission of promoting whole language learning, a vocabulary component was added to the preliminary written test.

Learn more

About the 86th Bee

Champion

Arvind Mahankali

Bayside, New York

Arvind Mahankali, age 13, sponsored by the Daily News, won the $30,000 prize by correctly spelling the word “knaidel.”

Arvind is a Ph.D. student in computer science at Stanford University. He completed his undergraduate studies, also in computer science, at Carnegie Mellon University.

Location

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

at the Maryland Ballroom

Winning Word

knaidel(n)

kuh-NAY-dul

a small mass of leavened dough cooked by boiling or steaming (as with soup, stew or fruit with which it is to be served) : a dumpling.

This word is from German-derived Yiddish.

OFFICIALS

Directors

Paige P. Kimble

Judges

  • Mary Brooks
  • Blake Giddens
  • Dr. Ed Low
  • George Thampy

Pronouncers

  • Dr. Jacques Bailly
  • Dr. Brian Sietsema

SPELLER ROSTER

  • Alia Abiad
  • Louis Aldridge
  • Christian Allen
  • Victoria Allen
  • Lillian Allingham
  • Divya Amirtharaj
  • Ashraya Ananthanarayanan
  • Isra Ansari
  • Brandon Aponte
  • Marguerite Arbogast
  • Audrey Bantug
  • Rebecca Baron
  • Michelle Beaulieu
  • Ina Beinborn
  • Kaelyn Bender
  • Bates Bennett
  • Sophie Bergman
  • Abel Birchfield
  • Lillian Bischof
  • Colton Blinka
  • Aleena Boby
  • Amber Born
  • Jasmine Brandt
  • Kalika Bridwell
  • Jonathan Caldwell
  • Kyle Campbell
  • Jae Canetti
  • Maja Cannavo
  • Anthony Capasso
  • Robert Cerise
  • Gurjiwan Chahal
  • Nikitha Chandran
  • Sai Vishudhi Chandrasekhar
  • Sonia Chen
  • Daniel Chi
  • Isabel Cholbi
  • Sydney Christley
  • Veronica Chua
  • Hannah Citsay
  • Cassandra Clowe-Coish
  • Lauren Coccari
  • Kimmie Collins
  • Alexis Condon
  • Nandi Cook-Creek
  • Natalie Cummings
  • Philip Cummings
  • Rachael Cundey
  • Elizabeth Dang
  • Katie Danis
  • Indrani Das
  • Shobha Dasari
  • Sasha Davis
  • Nickolas Day
  • Anuk Dayaprema
  • Joseph Delamerced
  • Trina Desquitado
  • Ryan Devanandan
  • Jessica Ditton
  • Charlie Donahue
  • Matthew Donohue
  • Owen Duffy
  • Eboseremhen Eigbe
  • Victoria Epstein
  • Christine Farnberg
  • Hannah Faulconer
  • Evan Filer
  • Adrienne Fisher
  • Ashtyn Folgers
  • Nicole Frische
  • Madison Fuentes
  • Jillian Fusi
  • Jacob George
  • Minka Gill
  • Meghana Giri
  • Abram Goda
  • Kennith Gonzalez
  • Alicia Gonzalez
  • Clint Goodwin
  • Emma Greenlee
  • Matthew Griffin
  • Cecilia Guerrero
  • Emily Gunkel
  • Jonah Gunter
  • Kaitlin Hall
  • Jackson Hall
  • Madeline Hall
  • Justin Hamilton
  • Damien Handy
  • Yasir Hasnain
  • Sriram Hathwar
  • Olivia Havas
  • Daichi Hayakawa
  • Sterling Hollond
  • Chanya Holness
  • Mary Horton
  • Ronan Howlett
  • Sakif Islam
  • Sean Ives
  • Hannah Jackson
  • Michael James
  • Madison Jones
  • Letia Jones
  • Soleil Jones
  • Roshni Kainthan
  • Joshua Kalyanapu
  • Meghana Kamineni
  • Emily Keaton
  • Nathan Keenan
  • Faaris Khan
  • Aisha Khan
  • Vismaya Kharkar
  • Anchita Khurana
  • Kaylee Kim
  • Christian Kincaid
  • Iram Kingson
  • Joseph Kirkpatrick
  • Eva Kitlen
  • Adam Kleist
  • Ram Koganti
  • Ariel Kokoricha
  • Neha Konakalla
  • Himanvi Kopuri
  • Rahul Krishnaswamy
  • Jacob Lahti
  • Maggy Lambo
  • Stephen Landry
  • Antonio Vince Miguel Lansang
  • Jade Lee
  • Max Lee
  • Kara Lehnert
  • Lauren Lim
  • Sophia Limacher
  • Rebecca Lisk
  • Calvin Liu
  • Grant Loose
  • Kerri Lu
  • Jeremy Lun
  • Arvind Mahankali
  • Nicholas Manfred
  • Aaron Manning
  • Scott Markle
  • Shayley Martin
  • Daniel Mayo
  • Griffin McAvoy
  • Madeline McCoy
  • Claire McCrea
  • Tricia McCullough
  • Isaac McKee
  • Nina McManus
  • Safa Michigan
  • Kate Miller
  • Katrina Miller
  • Hannah Miller
  • Caleb Miller
  • Aditya Mishra
  • Mitchell Miya
  • Khaled Mohamed
  • Carson Monks
  • Haeun Moon
  • Richard Moraga
  • Sarah Mounib
  • Chythanya Murali
  • Yashna Nainani
  • Manu Nair
  • Tarun Neelavannan
  • Isabella Neubauer
  • Shannon Nulf
  • Christopher O’Connor
  • Dylan O’Connor
  • Max Oesterling
  • Mikaela Oliver
  • Cy Orentlicher
  • Mitsuki Ota
  • Shreyas Parab
  • Emma Parrish
  • Kirtan Patel
  • Zander Patent
  • Syamantak Payra
  • Abby Pepin
  • Sam Pereles
  • Margaret Peterson
  • Katie Peterson
  • DeAria Phoenix
  • Matthew Pitcock
  • Nicholas Poulos
  • Selena Qian
  • Vincente Quach
  • Christopher Rademacher
  • Keshav Ramesh
  • Hunter Randolph
  • Aditya Rao
  • Aparajita Rao
  • Abirami Ratnakumar
  • Amna Raza
  • Chetan Reddy
  • Zander Reed
  • Colleen Reed
  • Brian Reinhart
  • Grace Remmer
  • Jared Remsberg
  • Desiree Roby
  • Gabriella Rodriguez
  • Gabriela Rodriguez-Garcia
  • Taylor Roehl
  • Matthew Rogers
  • Donovan Rolle
  • Robin Roper
  • Kenneth Ross
  • Gabrielle Rubio
  • Lowell Ruck
  • Rohit Sahijwani
  • Jade Samanta
  • Osvaldo Sanchez
  • Alexander Schembra
  • Christal Schermeister
  • Annie Schnoll
  • Samantha Schofield
  • Jensen Schram
  • Kyle Schroeder
  • Gracie Schroeder
  • Isabelle Scott
  • Erin Sellers
  • Neha Seshadri
  • Cole Shafer-Ray
  • Kuvam Shahane
  • Swati Sharma
  • Alan Shi
  • Vanya Shivashankar
  • Christopher Shoemaker
  • Hannah Silvestro
  • Tara Singh
  • Hunter Singletary
  • Pranav Sivakumar
  • Mary Skirvin
  • Angela Smith
  • Danielle Smith
  • Imanol Soler Navarro
  • Ryan Soriano
  • Hrishikesh Srinivasan
  • Aarohi Srivastava
  • Rebekah Stanhope
  • Ryan Steed
  • Jesse Stephenson
  • Joshua Sturgill
  • Shayaan Subzwari
  • Ansun Sujoe
  • James Sun
  • Mollie Symons
  • Akira Takabayashi
  • Ethan Talbot
  • Bryce Tasso
  • Manav Thadani
  • Nicholas Thompson
  • Luke Thornburgh
  • Ted Tobias
  • Giabao Tonthat
  • Anna Tran
  • Cecilia Trujillo
  • Tauloto Tuiolemotu
  • Lucas Urbanski
  • Ashwin Veeramani
  • Kaitlin Venevongsoth
  • Gokul Venkatachalam
  • Ethan Wagner
  • Lee Wall
  • Katie Walstra
  • Katharine Wang
  • Qingyi Wang
  • Sean Wang
  • Jared Ward
  • Meryl Warpula
  • Alotus Wei
  • Olivia Weinbaum
  • Orli Weiss
  • Brian Werden
  • Zerin Wetzel
  • Meah Wilburn
  • Piper Winkler
  • Samuel Yeager
  • Molly Youngs
  • Richelle Zampella

* Winner
** Runner-Up