San Jose 7th-Grader Among 8 Co-Champions at Scripps National Spelling Bee

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- Rishik Gandhasri, a seventh-grader at Silver Oak Elementary School in San Jose, was one of eight co-champions Thursday in the finals of the 92nd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Fort Washington, Maryland, and televised on ESPN.

Gandhasri was sponsored by the Bay Area Regional Spelling Bee based in San Francisco.

Gandhasri was previously the winner of the second annual Santa Clara County Spelling Bee as a fifth-grader at Silver Oak, which is in the Evergreen School District.

"Spellers compete from all 50 U.S. states, several territories and other countries including the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea," according to the event website.

The eight kids will share the spelling bee title after organizers ran out of words that could challenge them. The ending was unprecedented in the 94-year history of the bee and raises questions about how the competition can adjust to kids who appear nonplussed by any word in the dictionary

The co-champions closed out the bee by spelling 47 consecutive words correctly, and they said fatigue was a much bigger problem than the words.

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