Navin Ramesh and Ranjana Ramesh, North Chelmsford, MA, Ashrita Gandhari, North Andover, MA, and Lohith Chatragadda, Lincoln, RI are among the 519 spellers who will compete in the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The national round competitors have been announced for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, with dozens of Indian American and South Asian Americans among the more than 500 individuals participating.

A total of 519 kids from across the country will convene to Washington, D.C., the last week of May to determine the top speller in 2018. Of the 519 spellers, over 150 of them are Indian American or South Asian American.

The final 519 kids came from 11 million spellers who began the competition roughly eight months ago.

Among the spellers who will take part in the national phase of the competition include Rahul Naveen of Simi Valley, Calif.; Dhyana Mishra of West Melbourne, Fla.; Sameer Tangirala of San Jose, Calif.; Jasmin Pruthi of Winter Haven, Fla.; Bharath Ram of Naples, Fla.; Dean Alkhairy of Newport Coast, Calif.; Amith Vasantha of San Jose, Calif.; Anish Samanu of Folsom, Calif.; and Aritra Banerjee of Rocky Hill, Conn.

Additionally, Saachi Sharma of Jacksonville, Fla.; Aswin Surya of San Jose, Calif.; Ritvik Teegavarapu of Boca Raton, Fla.; Siddharth Doppalapudi of Hoover, Ala.; Rohit Paradkar of Colorado Springs, Colo.; Shiv Mehrotra-Varma of Fresno, Calif.; Taj Patel of Andalusia, Ala.; Aisha Ranhawa of Corona, Calif.; Maanvi Sarwadi of Elkton, Md.; and Arsh Shah of Palm Harbor, Fla., will participate in the national finals.

Also participating in the championship round of the competition include Jaskarn Singh of Tulare, Calif.; Arin Bhandari of West Haven, Conn.; Ruba Hidayath of Coconut Creek, Fla.; Rishik Gandhasri of San Jose, Calif.; Alisha Chakravarty of Turlock, Calif.; Nidhi Vadlamudi of Santa Clara, Calif.; Sahas Goli of Santa Clara, Calif.; Anish Tejomurtula of Palm Harbor, Fla.; Anisha Rao of Dublin, Calif.; Vasundara Govindarajan of Miami, Fla.; and Ojas Vatsyayan of Fremont, Calif.

Other spelling whizzes heading to Washington, D.C., for the competition are Hrishkesh Krishna of Manhattan Beach, Calif.; Samhita Kumar of Gold River, Calif.; Umar Aziz of Santa Ana, Calif.; Pavani Chittemsetty of Bentonville, Ark.; Sahil Langote of New Castle, Dela.; Iscent George of Peoria, Ariz.; Kedaar Rentachintala of San Jose, Calif.; Maya Jyothinagaram of Forsyth, Ill.; Shria Halkoda of Wadsworth, Ill.; Kushala Madduru of Overland Park, Kan.; Sidharth Mody of Shreveport, La.; Tara Singh of Louisville, Ky.; Garv Gaur of Gainesville, Ga.; and Aastha Patel of Champaign, Ill.

More kids heading to the nation’s capital for the spelling competition include Sukesh Kamesh of Kingman, Kan.; Gauri Vashisht of West Monroe, La.; Abrar Nasser of Manhattan, Kan.; Kreesha Saha of West Lafayette, Ind.; Atman Balakrishnan of Hinsdale, Ill.; Anmol Dash of Buffalo Grove, Ill.; Sharanya Chatterjee of Orlando, Fla.; Alesya Rathinasamy of Muncie, Ind.; Avinash Kumar of Stuart, Fla.; Arik Karim of Wellington, Fla.; Sharanya Pastapur of Lake Zurich, Ill.; Pranav Kollu of Algonquin, Ill.; Tejas Shyamsundar of Vernon Hills, Ill.; and Riya Joshi of Chicago, Ill.

Also to show off their spelling prowess hailing from various parts of the country will be Abhiram Kapaganty, Awwab Azam, Neha Mothilal, Jashun Paluru, Rayaan Rahman, Oscar Patel, Swathi Menon, Aashi Mishra, Manjeet Nirula, Sania Naik, Manish Sriram, Nupur Karnik, Kris Patel, Pragya Choudhary, Ishaan Akula, Navin Ramesh, Saketh Sundar, Tanusree Makwana, Vikram Goddla, Uzair Hammad, Rahul Reddy, Vaibhavi Mahajan, Keerthi Padmanabhan, Navneeth Murali, Tanay Nandan and Vishal Madhudi.

Sharvani Vadlamani, Ashrita Gandhari, Shruthika Padhy, Ranjana Ramesh, Ryana Sarcar, Veer Tuliani, Rohan Rao, Akansha Nanda, Saagar Dubey, Neel Iyer, Sravanth Malla, Paarth Tara, Tanvi Rakesh, Nilla Rajan, Meena Seshadri, Alia Abou Dakka, Ranitha Kumarasinghe, Akshar Yeccherla, Prisha Patel, Aashi Parikh, Anushka Kulkarni, Snehal Choudhury, Rahul Sachdev, Akhil Madala, Srivatsav Nemmani, Kabir Muthu, Sivasaipraneethreddy Devireddy, Rosy Kannankeril and Lohith Chatragadda are part of the final rounds.

More of the spellers among the 500-plus kids participating include Ananth Kashyap, Ria Sai, Abhinav Palle, Saisurya Lakkimsetti, Misha Agrawal, Adith Joshua George, Beatrice Gale Sangangbayan, Surabi Shanmugam, Nidhi Achanta, Anoushka Upadhye, Shomoy Kamal, Rohan Arulkumar, Aaron Ehsan, Isabelle Aujla, Harini Logan, Pranav Nandakumar, Maya Jadhav, Veena Namboodiri, Naysa Modi, Deeya Patel, Srikar Chamarthi, Hanna Ghouse, Rohit Saralaya and Sonika Harish.

Rounding out the Indian American and South Asian American competitors are Nikitha Prabhu, Akash Vukoti, Rohan Raja, Pranav Chemudupaty, Simran Patibanda, Karthik Nemmani, Raj Papineni, Azin Aneez, Nairit Sarkar, Hephzibah Sujoe, Vishal Vinjamuri, Anika Gundlapalli, Abhijay Kodali, Shiva Yeshlur, Raghav Dhandi, Mishal Ali, Srivarun Hathwar, Vihaan Sibal, Neha Rao, Fetin Hussain, Sohum Sukhatankar, Aditya Chezhiyan, Sreeram Pillai and Pranathi Jammula.

Indian American kids have dominated the national spelling bee of recent memory, claiming the championship every year for the past decade, dating back to 2008. In 2017, Indian Americans swept the competition, with Ananya Vinay winning and Rohan Rajeev and Mira Dedhia finishing second and third, respectively.

The national finals preliminary rounds will commence May 29 and May 30, paring down the competitors who will then take part in the championship round May 31.

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