Hinsdale Middle School seventh grader Atman Balakrishnan advanced to Thursday’s finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., it was announced Wednesday.
Atman, making his second consecutive trip to the competition, advanced by spelling pince-nez and parvenuism correctly in the second and third rounds, respectively, and scoring high enough on the Round 1 written exam of spelling and vocabulary.
The exam is used to determine who advances to the finals for contestants surviving spelling rounds 2 and 3. Atman was eliminated a year ago for not having a sufficient test score. Now, he is on one of 50 advancing to the finals, being shown on ESPN 2, beginning at 9 a.m. (central time) Thursday.
“I knew I did a lot better this time on the test than before,” Atman said after learning he had advanced to the finals. “I feel relieved to make it to the finals this year, but I want to win. I feel very prepared, and I’m hoping to get some words I can spell.”
The only other Chicago-area contestant to advance to the finals is Calvin Franke, an eighth grader from Plum Grove Junior High School in Rolling Meadows in Elementary District 15.
The 2019 spelling bee started with 562 contestants, including 162 returnees. In Round 3, 369 contestants spelled correctly, but all but the final 50 were eliminated, based on their Round 1 test scores.
Srinidhi Rao, a third grader from The Lane School in Hinsdale, spelled her words, tattersall and figurable, correctly in rounds 2 and 3, but did not qualify for the finals, based on her exam score.
“She’s very disappointed, but it was a very good experience for her, and she’s very motivated for the future,” said Srinidhi’s mother, Leela Rao. “She’s not going to give up.”
Atman and Rao both qualified after the DuPage County competition in February.
Two other area spellers made it through rounds 2 and 3 but did not advance to the finals.
Samantha Gass, a Caruso Middle School eighth grader from Deerfield, and Sohan Bendre, a Westmont resident who attends Avery Coonley School in Downers Grove.
Atman’s story at the national bee has been especially interesting because his father, Balu Natarajan, was the 1985 national champion.