RivCo Speller Advances To Scripps National Spelling Bee Quarterfinals

CORONA, CA — A Corona Auburndale Intermediate School student of local spelling bee legend competes this week in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland. This is the eighth and final time a member of the Randhawa family will battle for a win in the national bee.

On Tuesday, he correctly spelled "raclette," a Swiss dish of melted cheese typically eaten with potatoes, and chose the correct answer to the vocabulary question, "What is a moratorium?" by selecting "a delay officially set by some authority."

Avijeet Randhawa was among nine spellers tying for 12th in last year's bee.

His sister, Aisha, competed in the national bee from 2016-19, with her best finish coming in 2018 when she tied for seventh place. His other sister, Lara, was among 10 spellers tying for 13th in 2022 and reached the quarterfinals in 2021.

The 13-year-old eighth-grader qualified for the national bee by winning the Riverside County Spelling Bee in March, correctly spelling crescendo as the final word.

Singe 2016, a member of the Randhawa family has won all eight county bees, not counting the canceled 2020 bee due to the coronavirus pandemic.

When not studying to compete in the bees, Avijeet enjoys playing the video game Minecraft, pickleball, drums, guitar and building large Lego structures. In his free time, he often plays basketball and goes on brief walks. He likes to watch animals as they explore and live their lives.

The national bee will begin with a field of 245 spellers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Canada, the Bahamas, Germany and Ghana. The field is the largest since 2019.

Tuesday's preliminaries at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center will be streamed on ION Plus, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com from 5 a.m. to their conclusion, expected to be around 4:40 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

The bee is limited to students in eighth grade or below and who were born Sept. 1, 2008 or later—contestants for the 96th edition of the national bee range in age from 8 to 15.

The winner will receive $50,000 from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, $2,500 and a reference library from the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster, $400 in reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica, and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium.

A speller from Riverside County has never won the national bee.

City News Service contributed to this report.