By: Amanda Yang

On June 2nd, 2022, 14-year-old Harini Logan from San Antonio, Texas, won her 4th attempt at the National Scripps Spelling Bee also while competing in the first-ever spell-off. This three-day Spelling Bee happened at National Harbor, Maryland, with 299 spellers competing.

When Logan made it to the final twelve, she faced a setback. Her definition of “pullulation” was rejected. She described it as the “nesting of mating birds,” but Scripps described it as the “swarming of bees.” When the judges realized Harini’s definition was also correct, they brought her back.

Logan, now back in the competition, successfully made it until there was only one other person left, 12-year-old Vikram Raju, from Aurora, Colorado.

As the competition heated up, Logan missed 4 words, but luckily her opponent also missed just as many. To break the tie between them, they had Scripps’s first spell-off.

A spell-off is when both contestants are given a list of predetermined words, and they spell as many of the words they can in 90 seconds. Whoever gets the most correct wins. The spellers are also not allowed to ask for a definition, part of speech, or origin like they are earlier in the competition.

Raji, her opponent, spelled 15 out of 19 correctly, and Logan spelled 21 out of 26 correctly, making Logan the winner. The word she beat Raji on was “moorhen,” a female medium-sized water bird, usually living in aquatic places. This was the first time this 94-year-old competition has had a spell-off.

Though Logan had to overcome many obstacles, she finally received a greatly envied title, the trophy, and over $50,000 in cash and prizes. According to her interview on USAtoday, she said she was going to give some of the money back to the community, maybe invest in the stock market, and keep most of it for college funds.

Logan is in her first year of high school and is planning to reach her next goal, to write a book before she graduates.