• Jan. 31, 2019

    School Spelling Bee winners advance to regionals 

    Spelling Bee Five Upper St. Clair students will advance to the 69th Annual Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee set for Saturday, March 9, 2019, at Robert Morris University.

    To qualify for the regional competition, Avantika Palayekar, Baker Elementary School; Siddharth Kumar, Eisenhower Elementary; Ava Liu, Streams Elementary School; Shriya Narasimhan, Boyce Middle School; and Priyanka Palayekar, Fort Couch Middle School; each finished first in his/her school’s spelling bee. The school-level spelling bees, open to students in grades 4 – 8, were sponsored by the Upper St. Clair Parent Teacher Council.

    Students up through grade 8 from throughout a 26-county region will compete at Robert Morris University. The winner of the Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee will receive an all-expense paid trip to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May 2019. 

    Upper St. Clair’s school-level results are provided below. 

    Baker Elementary School (grade 4)

    • First Place: Avantika Palayekar with a winning word of "chloroform"
    • Second Place: Saara Iyer
    • Third Place: Vivian Sliski
    • Fourth Place: Vedant Naik
    • Fifth Place: Molly Biedrzycki

    Eisenhower Elementary School (grade 4)

    • First Place: Siddharth Kumar with a winning word of "writhing"
    • Second Place: Augusta Bottonari
    • Third Place: Aidan McGrath
    • Fourth Place: Aidan Coulehan
    • Fifth Place: Will Mecs

    Streams Elementary School (grade 4)

    • First Place: Ava Liu with a winning word of “bronchitis”
    • Second Place: Madalyn Burchill
    • Third Place: Preston McLeod
    • Fourth Place: Elaina Guarino
    • Fifth Place: Alex Wise

    Boyce Middle School

    • First Place: Shriya Narasimhan with a winning word of "Confucian"
    • Second Place: Nikhil Chandran
    • Third Place: Eitan Schwartz
    • Fourth Place: Jackie Sharp
    • Fifth Place: Rohan Mehta

    Fort Couch Middle School

    • First Place (for the second year in a row): Priyanka Palayekar, grade 8, with a winning word of “libertarian”
    • Second Place: Arnav Kumar, grade 7
    • Third Place: Anushka Patil, grade 7
    • Fourth Place: Keshav Narasimhan, grade 8
    • Fifth Place: Roshith Nadimpalli, grade 7