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Shrey Parikh wins Scripps National Spelling Bee
Rancho Cucamonga's Shrey Parikh won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on his third attempt at the title.
Shrey Parikh of Rancho Cucamonga was crowned the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion Thursday night.
The 14-year-old became the first from the greater Los Angeles area to win the top prize.
"I was just really excited and relieved, and I was just really happy overall. It was a great moment," Shrey Parikh said.
The soon-to-be high school freshman won in his third attempt at the title.
No surprise to Etiwanda School District's spelling bee coordinator.
"He put in the work, he put in the work. He put in the effort, he persevered and he achieved his ultimate goal, so we are really happy for him, his family, and just really, really proud of him," Nick Zajicek said.
Shrey is the first Californian to win the National Spelling Bee since 2017's Ananya Vinay of Fresno, who now attends Pomona College.
"The year before, I had placed 172nd, so I did some reflecting, changed my study strategy and came in hoping for the best and to see what would happen," Vinay said.
She won with the word "marocain."
This year's bee ended in a tie-breaking spell-off.
"It was so amazing, and it's a completely different skill set than the regular spelling bee, especially for the more obscure words," Vinay said.
Shrey told FOX 11 his method helped him with the spell-off.
"I mainly study by making my own lists and using programs to type words, and that was really beneficial for this because when you're typing words, you try to go fast, so going fast just kind of came naturally," Parikh said.
Shrey's bringing home that trophy and making all of Southern California P-R-O-U-D, proud.