A North Carolina speller hasn’t won the National Spelling Bee since 1970.

But on Thursday night, a seventh-grader from Cary came very, very close.( )

Ananya Rao Prassanna, 13, walked away from the nationally televised finals tied for third place out of a field of 245 spellers.

Her impressive bid to be crowned the top speller in the nation ended when she tried to spell murrina, a disease carried by Central American horses and mules. She spelled it “marina.”

Bruhat Soma, a 12-year-old from Florida, was crowned champion after defeating Faizan Zaki, a 12-year-old from Texas, in a fast-paced spell-off.( )

But Prassanna, in the national Bee for her third consecutive year, made her mark as she made it to the finals for the first time. The Wake County teen had the highest finish for a North Carolina speller since Sreethan Gajula of Union County finished in 7th place in the 2021 Spelling Bee.( )

And her moments of joy when she correctly spelled her words made her a fan favorite.

Mary Brooks, the head Bee judge, praised her before she exited the stage.

“You have shown us in your three appearances how dedicated you are, and you give a lot of credit to others,” Brooks told Prassanna. “Just one shout-out for you. That principal who couldn’t get a flight here and drove all the way just to be here for you, that’s the kind of person you are. Congratulations.”( )

Michael Hokenberg, the principal of Davis Drive Middle School in Cary, traveled to National Harbor, Maryland, this week to cheer the seventh-grader on.

Spelling prodigy

Prassanna has been a spelling prodigy for years. She qualified for her first National Spelling Bee in 2022 when she was an elementary school student in Nebraska. She tied for 49th that year.( )

Prassanna moved to North Carolina after her family relocated for her father’s job. Her father, Prassanna Rao Rajgopal, has said they picked Davis Drive Middle in part because of the school’s strong support for the Spelling Bee program.( )

“Great to see all the smiles after years of hard work!” Hokenberg posted Wednesday on X, formerly called Twitter. “The @DDMSBuzz and @wcpss communities are behind you, Ananya.”

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