2017

The 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on June 1st, 2017. It was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, and 291 spellers participated.

For the third year in a row, the Bee ended in a tie! As a result, a tiebreaker test, the precursor to the onstage Spell-off, was created in the event of a future tie. It involved the Finalists taking a written test with 12 spelling and 12 vocabulary questions.

Learn more

About the 90th Bee

Champion

Ananya Vinay

Fresno, California

Ananya Vinay, age 12, sponsored by The Fresno Bee, won the $40,000 prize by correctly spelling the word “marocain.”

Ananya is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience at Pomona University. In 2023, she was named one of 150 Coca-Cola Scholars.

Location

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

at the Maryland Ballroom

Winning Word

marocain(n)

mar-uh-KAYN

a dress fabric that is made with a warp of silk or rayon and a filling of other yarns and is similar to but heavier than canton crepe.

This word is from a French word from an African geographical name.

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 Abou Dakka
  • Nana Addo
  • Akshansh Ajay Kumar
  • Ishaan Akula
  • Calvin Alexander, Jr.
  • Brandon Anderson
  • Adom Appiah
  • Cameron Apple
  • Aiden Arnett
  • Mia Ashriem
  • Sydney Aslan
  • Penda Ba
  • Faith Baca
  • Aditya Badlani
  • Reshmi Balakrishnan
  • Amelia Ballingall
  • Chinmay Bapat
  • Nathaniel Barnes
  • Martius Bautista
  • Joseph Benson
  • Tyler Berndt
  • Arin Bhandari
  • Anmol Bhatia
  • Lydia Bitterman
  • Silas Black
  • Jake Blackburn
  • Ainsley Boucher
  • Noah Brandt
  • Gabrielle Brown
  • Garrett Bryner
  • Melinda Buhlman
  • Vince Burton
  • Naomi Castellanos
  • Shubhokkan Chakma
  • Srikar Chamarthi
  • Z’Qi Chapman
  • Olivia Charles
  • Asha Chauhan
  • Leonardo Chen
  • Daniel Chen
  • Aditya Chezhiyan
  • Catherine Chung
  • Alexandria Ciurlino
  • Ava Cloonan
  • Anna Cockfield
  • Julian Connaughton
  • Ryan Crawford
  • Cassidy Crawford
  • Shourav Dasari
  • Neil Dave
  • David De Coursy
  • Mira Dedhia
  • Alyssa Faith Dela Cruz
  • Matthew Delis
  • Deuce Ditton
  • Surya Dodia
  • Daniel Doudna
  • Erik Dubbs
  • Brent Earl Ebarle
  • Amelia Edelsberg
  • Shantanu Edgaonkar
  • Andrew Elias
  • Gabriel Ennin
  • Ella Espiritu
  • Kevin Fan
  • Cecelia Fatta
  • Jaden Fellows
  • Hannah Fernandes
  • Sam Fetters
  • David Firestone
  • Eleanor Fournier
  • Lawrence Fu
  • Edith Fuller
  • Ashrita Gandhari
  • Rutvik Gandhasri
  • Adith Joshua George
  • Hanna Ghouse
  • Eric Gitson
  • Shrinidhi Gopal
  • Michael Goss
  • Andrew Gould
  • Vasundara Govindarajan
  • Mandy Granz
  • Marin Gray
  • Ethan Greenley
  • Haven Griggs
  • Louise Julia Grimaldo
  • Anika Gundlapalli
  • Riley Hamp
  • Paul Hamrick
  • Rose Han
  • Haebin Han
  • Kelly Han
  • Yash Hande
  • Farah Haniff
  • Kelly Haven
  • Daniel Healy
  • Sheridan Hennessy
  • Ryan Himmelsbach
  • Deneiro Hines
  • Zachary Hoelscher
  • Folau Holi
  • Seunga Hong
  • Erin Howard
  • Tina Huang
  • Enya Hubers
  • Serena Huberty
  • Sameera Hussain
  • Joey Ilagan
  • Shaheer Imam
  • Margaret Isacson
  • Nicholas Ivan
  • Alex Iyer
  • Haley Jeffers
  • Hailey Jinkins
  • Annalee Johnson
  • Grace Jones
  • Charity-Dakota Jordan
  • Briana Joseph
  • Riya Joshi
  • Dhruv Kaderu
  • Abhiram Kapaganty
  • Simone Kaplan
  • Thomas Kaufman
  • Rishubh Kaushal
  • Magnus Keswani
  • Christopher Kiekhaefer
  • Eujine Kim
  • Emily King
  • Anna Kleist
  • Rayne Korsmo
  • Raksheet Kota
  • Owen Kovalik
  • Storrie Kulynych-Irvin
  • Samhita Kumar
  • Nikhil Lahiri
  • Marisa Langley
  • Sahil Langote
  • Daniel Larsen
  • Jennifer Lau
  • Connor Lawrence
  • Ishreet Lehal
  • Ben Lenger
  • Charles Li
  • Lisa Lin
  • Emma Liu
  • Alice Liu
  • Will Lourcey
  • Melodie Loya
  • David Lye
  • Sravanth Malla
  • Aashray Mandala
  • Sofia Jenia Marquez
  • Ricardo Marrero-Alattar
  • Maia Marshall
  • Andrew Masciarelli
  • Melanie Mascorro
  • Grace Maxson
  • Grace McKeegan
  • Kieran McKinney
  • Sakiusa Meador
  • Riley Meese
  • Joel Miles
  • Jack Miller
  • Kelly Mills
  • Kael Miranda
  • Siyona Mishra
  • Naysa Modi
  • Lucas Mooney
  • Joseph Moran
  • Stella Motl
  • Elizabeth Muganyizi
  • Jacob Muin
  • Varad Mulay
  • Elizabeth Muller
  • Lindy Murphy
  • Tejas Muthusamy
  • William “Liam” Myers
  • Tanay Nandan
  • Minh Nguyen
  • Sylvia Nguyen
  • Tien Nguyen
  • Manjeet Nirula
  • Liam Nyikos
  • Emelie Ojukwu
  • Nathan Ostermann
  • Shruthika Padhy
  • Rishi Padmanabhan
  • Akshra Paimagam
  • Jashun Paluru
  • Soyeon Park
  • Sharanya Pastapur
  • Krutik Patel
  • Samuel Paul
  • Brendan Pawlicki
  • Haley Payton
  • Reese Perry
  • Cristina Pines
  • Ashwin Prasad
  • Jee’von Pratt
  • Ava Jane Propper
  • Lydia Pulsinelli
  • Rohan Rajeev
  • Tanvi Rakesh
  • Shaurir Ramanujan
  • Haris Rana
  • Aisha Randhawa
  • Vithul Ravivarma
  • Ryan Rayos
  • Jamari Reeves
  • Anna-Livia Regan
  • Avril Regis
  • Abby Richburg
  • Emmanuel Rimocal
  • Jessica Rivera
  • Caleb Roberts
  • Will Rooke
  • Kaitlin Ryan
  • Rohan Sachdev
  • Ria Sai
  • Akilan Sankaran
  • Nick Sarji
  • Chad Saunders
  • Josh Saylor
  • Marlene Schaff
  • Lane Schnell
  • Christopher Serrao
  • Devesh Shah
  • Arsh Shah
  • Siddhant Sharma
  • Ian Shasha
  • Jessie Shaw
  • Collin Shea
  • Maggie Sheridan
  • Harshita Shet
  • Nikil Shyamsunder
  • Tara Singh
  • Jeremy Slywczak
  • Phoebe Smith
  • Torah Smith
  • Casper Smith
  • Jason Sorin
  • Anastasia Spahr
  • Kodai Speich
  • Neil St. John
  • Macey Stancato
  • Briandria Starks
  • Sam Stephens
  • Isabelle Stetka
  • Lucinda Storz
  • Sohum Sukhatankar
  • Saketh Sundar
  • Zach Swyers
  • Paarth Tara
  • Grant Taylor
  • Samuel Thomas
  • Helena Thompson
  • Theo Thompson-Armstrong
  • Meryl Tigenoah
  • Elizabeth Tittrington
  • Kasey Torres
  • Xuan Tran
  • Lily Tugbah
  • Shreeta Vachhani
  • Una VanWynsberghe
  • Luca Varanelli
  • Mary Elizabeth Vaughan
  • Aidan Veress
  • Langley Vernon
  • Ananya Vinay
  • Vanya Virmani
  • Sreeniketh Vogoti
  • Srivatsav Vuppala
  • Zoe Ward
  • Leela Waterford
  • Erin Welch
  • Peter Westbrook
  • Charley Wiggins
  • Delaney Williams
  • Cierra Wilson
  • Kendal Win
  • Dale Winand
  • Celine Yap
  • Bethanya Yared
  • Thomas York
  • Nabil Zaman
  • Naomi Zarin
  • Rebekah Zeigler
  • Jaden Zhang
  • Jeff Zheng
  • Winston Zuo

* Winner
** Runner-Up