Grades 4 through 8 from Upper and Lower Delaware gathered at St. Mark’s High School Saturday to compete in the Delaware State Spelling Bee.
The winner was crowned after a final spell of 25 rounds.
Maanvi Sarwadi, grade 7 student from Caravel Academy, Saturday’s big winner, said she visualized this moment over and over again in her head, and after waiting a full year, it all finally ended in her favor .
“I was determined; being third last year made me realize that I had to be up to it,” said Sarwadi. “Realizing that I’m continuing and not staying at home is a big deal.”
Kavita Sarwadi said her daughter had worked extremely hard over the previous year to get back to the top and she was happy to see it all paid off.
“It’s a proud moment as a parent because she put a lot of effort into it,” Sarwadi said. “It was teamwork. The whole family came in, and we used to question her, and it was a team effort.
Young Sarwadi claimed the winner after correctly spelling “phyton“.
The full competition took about five hours to complete with three rounds of clearance just to determine who would place second and third.
Dave Skocik has been the bee announcer since 1991 and said this year’s competition symbolizes initiative, determination and academic excellence.
“If not the longest, it was one of the longest we’ve ever had, just because you had so many great spellings and these kids were really, really prepared,” Skocik said.
Robin Brown, lead judge, said it was truly remarkable to have over a dozen rounds with just two eliminations while trying to whittle the field down to three finalists.
“The children knew what they were doing and they spent their time studying, and when they weren’t sure they would trust the nation the word came from and spell it out on paper first,” Brown said. “They all did a very good job.”
William Patrick Doyle, an 8th grader from Meredith (Everett) Middle School, came second, and Raphael Kim, an 8th grader from Newark Charter, who won the state spelling bee two years ago years, won second place.
