562 spellers at the Scripps National Spelling Bee this year, which makes it the largest group ever.
When it all began, 16 of those kids were from DFW. It ended in an 8-way tie, and 3 of those students are from North Texas. Kodali, 12, of Flower Mound; Raja, 13, of Irving; Sukhatankar, 13, of Dallas. Those in charge of the "Bee" said last night; “Champion spellers, we are now in uncharted territory,” “We do have plenty of words remaining on our list. But we will soon run out of words that will possibly challenge you, the most phenomenal collection of super spellers in the history of this competition.”
Yes, you read that right, THEY WERE RUNNING OUT OF WORDS. One of the students, around 11pm even stopped to ask one of the judges; "Can you tell me what time it is?" You could tell by the end of this whole thing the kids were absolutely exhausted, but it paid off! They each won $50,000.00, and made history. Way to go guys!