R-E-P-E-A-T: San Diego Seventh-Grader Wins Back-to-Back County Spelling Bees

Seventh-grader Mihir Konkapaka Thursday won back-to-back titles at the 53rd annual countywide spelling bee.

The Mesa Verde Middle School student in Poway Unified School District will go on to represent San Diego County at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

"I'm excited because, like, the entire off-list section of words was really, like, tense because there was no way you could have prepared for that," Mihir said.

When accepting the trophy, the 12-year-old Mihir thanked his school librarian and teacher for helping him in the run-up to the bee. The winning word was "exsufflation," derived from Latin and meaning "forcible breathing or blowing out (as in clearing the respiratory tract)."

"I spelled 'sufflation' a few times before so I pretty much had an idea how 'exsufflation' would be spelled," Mihir said, clutching his trophy while surrounded by questioners from the media. "But it was still a bit, like, being able to know that 'sufflation' and 'exsufflation,' you know, are related to a whole other word, that was a bit hard."

Mihir, wearing blue eyeglasses, a blue-and-white striped button down shirt and yellow V-necked sweater, battled it out through eight rounds with his toughest competitor from 2022, Jedd Li, an eighth-grader at Francis Parker School. For the second year in a row, Jedd will serve as an alternate should Mihir be unable to compete in the national bee.

The countywide spelling bee was held in person for the first time since 2019 and featured 76 students from grades six to eight attending public and independent schools throughout San Diego County.

"The spelling bee is a time-honored academic competition that any student can participate in to connect with school and develop skills that will help them in the future," said Paul Gothold, San Diego County superintendent of schools. "Students learn to set goals, dedicate time to studying and gain experience in public speaking, all of which are useful in college, career and life."

A high degree of difficulty in the first round winnowed the field down to 30 by the second round, and just 10 were still competing by Round 3.

Students representing the county have won the Scripps National Spelling Bee twice in recent years: in 2012 with Francis Parker School student Snigdha Nandipati and in 2005 when Anurag Kashyap, a student from Poway, won it all.

The spelling bee pronouncer this year was Walter Ritter, executive director of Write Out Loud, an organization that "seeks to inspire, challenge and entertain by reading literature aloud to audiences of all ages."