Travilah ES Student Finishes Third In Regional Spelling Bee

Travilah Elementary School's Reethi Padmanabhan finished third at Saturday's Montgomery County regional spelling bee.

The fifth grade student earned Travilah's first-ever spot in the regional bee, winning the school's third-to-fifth grade competition by spelling the word "malice".

"She was the only elementary school student in the last two rounds," Travilah Elementary School Principal Susan Shenk told Patch in an email. "We are very proud of her."

Students from 38 different Montgomery County public and private schools competed at Saturday's Scripps Regional Spelling Bee for Montgomery County, hosted by . 

Eighth grade student Reid FitzHugh from prevailed in the end, clinching the championship by spelling “sabermetrics” correctly.  Alex Brassel, an eighth grader from , was the runner-up. 

FitzHugh will now go on to compete in the 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in June, along with hundreds of other elementary and middle school students from across the United States. The winner of the National Bee receives a $30,000 cash prize and an engraved trophy from Scripps, a $2,500 savings bond, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $3,800 in reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica, and a $5,000 cash prize from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation.

The bee was held at in Bethesda.