Two Columbia County School Districts students have been named winner and first runner-up at the district-wide spelling bee on Jan. 16, advancing them to the regional bee next month.
The two champions are first place winner Raghav Thumsi, a fourth grader from Blue Ridge Elementary School, and first runner-up Sara Daoud, a seventh grader from Greenbrier Middle School.
The pair will compete in the Region 7 Spelling Bee on Feb. 22 in Eatonton, Ga. They will be joined by third place winner Anvi Reddy, a fifth grader from Stevens Creek Elementary.
Riverside Elementary School’s Felicity Lule came in fourth place and is an alternate, meaning that if Thumsi, Daoud or Reddy are unable to compete next month, she will take their place.
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The winning word at Thursday night’s district bee was “saeta,” which is a kind of religious song.
Elementary and middle school students from across the district competed for a total of 14 rounds before Thumsi was announced as the winner.
First and second place winners talk about their victory
Daoud said that it was her first year competing, and that the experience was different than she expected it to be: “it was actually pretty easy in the beginning, and at the end they just like, switched on the hard, they made it really hard,” she said.
Thumsi said that it felt “amazing” to be a winner.
“I feel like a pro athlete captaining a team that just won in their league,” he said. “My goal was not even to win, it was just to get top three.”
Both Daoud and Thumsi expressed that the process of preparing for the spelling bee was very involved with both studying a provided list of words each day leading up to the competition.
“The second I got the study packet, I just like, immediately started spelling,” said Daoud.
Daoud said her second place win on Thursday has motivated her to strive for first place next year – especially since her eighth grade year will be the last that she’s able to participate.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to accomplish even more,” she said.
