From 74th Place to Spelling Champion: One Boy’s Journey to Win the Scripps Bee

When Bruhat Soma lifted the ceramic Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy in a blizzard of confetti as cheers erupted from the audience late Thursday night, he was shocked but he also knew that, finally, he had achieved his goal. He was the champion.

“I’m really happy that I won,” Bruhat said during a phone interview on Friday morning. “It’s like a dream come true.”

The 12-year-old from Tampa, Fla., won in a spell-off round — just the second one to be held in the history of the competition. Bruhat rattled off a head-spinning 29 correctly spelled words in 90 seconds, including heautophany, nachschläge and puszta.

Bruhat’s spell-off sprint on Thursday night won him the competition’s trophy, the Scripps Cup, and a grand prize of $50,000. He far surpassed his competitor, Faizan Zaki, a sixth grader from Dallas who correctly spelled 20 words, and also the bee’s previous spell-off record of 22 correct words in 2022, according to Bee officials.

The spell-off came easily to Bruhat, who said he had prepared for this exact moment for six months. His father, Srinivas Soma, would prepare a daily list of 30 words for him to practice spelling out in 90 seconds, leaving him “kind of nervous, but I knew I had prepared” once the big moment arrived.

In addition to studying with his father, Bruhat said he used SpellPundit, a popular tool among top spellers, and the dictionary to get ready for Scripps. He also worked with a spelling coach and practiced his vocabulary by making his own list of words to study, focusing on his trouble spots.