‘Querken’ stumped him, but this Delco 8th grader placed 10th of 231 in national spelling bee

Pranav Anandh knew every word he spelled correctly in the first eight rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee — including obscure words like kyphoplasty, telergy, and polissoir.

The Garnet Valley eighth grader, who made it to the semifinals of the Scripps contest last year and the quarterfinals the year before that, devoted himself to preparing for this year’s event — working with three coaches and studying upwards of five hours a night.

“Every day since I qualified for the nationals, I spend at least five to six hours a day” studying, said Anandh, 14, who won Delaware County’s regional spelling bee in February. “Homework is later.”

In the ninth round of the finals last week, Anandh drew on that training when he came to a word that stumped him: querken. (Its definition: to cause to gasp, according to Merriam Webster.)

“I tried to ask for all the information to see if I could pick up on anything in the definition or language,” Anandh said. But “it wasn’t very helpful.” The word was dialectal, he said — not following a particular set of patterns.

He debated: Was it q-u-i or q-u-e? He chose the former.

“At that moment, I didn’t really feel what happened. I was in shock,” he said. “It didn’t really hit me until I came off the stage and sat down. I was talking to a couple friends and they also didn’t know the word. That made me feel better — it’s not just me.”

Anandh finished in 10th place out of 231 students in the national contest. “I’m definitely happy — I never would have thought I’d have been a finalist,” he said.

His journey to the finals began in second grade, when he realized he was getting almost perfect scores on school spelling tests. In third grade, he participated in his first school spelling bee, placing fourth; the next year, he won the school contest and placed fourth in the county.

He kept advancing — winning the county bee in sixth grade and coming in 31st in the Scripps national contest, and then coming in 23rd the following year.

“It’s probably like, the idea I could win, and I could be in the shoes of all the past champions,” Anandh said of his dedication.

While he wasn’t able to talk to his friends as much or play outside as often, Anandh said his studying for this year’s contest paid off. As a 10th place winner, he’ll get $2,000 and a commemorative medal from Scripps. (The national champion wins $50,000.)

“If I hadn’t put in the time, there was no way I would have gotten any of those words,” he said, noting that only words in the early rounds come from a list spellers can study ahead of time. The rest require broader knowledge of vocabulary and language patterns.

“It feels really satisfying” to get a word right, Anandh said.

His mother, Sandhya Ganesan, said it was “nervewracking” watching her son at the competition in Maryland.

When querken came up, “I could see he was debating,” she said. Though the word marked her son’s exit from the contest, Ganesan was heartened to see the camaraderie with fellow students.

“They all cheer each other,” she said. “You’re not competing against another person, but against the dictionary.”

The experience “definitely did create discipline in him, the perseverance,” Ganesan said. “At times we used to feel for him, he had to miss out on some of the social events. I think in the end, it all paid off.”

This was Anandh’s last year in the Scripps bee, which tops out at eighth grade. But he has other interests: Anandh, who favors science classes, has also participated in robotics competitions and hopes to become an engineer.

With summer approaching, “I actually have a lot of plans,” he said. First is to build a gaming computer. (Asked if he already knows how or will be learning as he goes, he said, “YouTube exists for a reason.”) He also plans to prepare to play tennis next year, and will be “trying to find research opportunities or internships with companies.”

He believes his experience spelling competitively will translate to other areas of life — including the act of striving to do better.

“Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t,” he said. “But as long as you put in the work and do the best as you can, you have to hope you get a word you can figure out.”