Super speller: Clovis Unified student wins county competition, prepares for state and national Spelling Bees

“Babka. B-A-B-K-A. Babka.” And with that, the correct spelling of a Polish sweet bread made with dried fruit, Fugman Elementary fifth grader Ananya Vinay earned her spot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Ananya, the 2015 California State Elementary Spelling Bee champion, confidently spelled her way through the March 15 Fresno County Spell Off held at Fresno State, defeating more than 40 students in the elementary competition that morning and then out-spelling the top two junior high winners in the Scripps competition later that day.

Ananya’s mother, Anupama Poliyedath, laughed about the winning word, recalling her daughter’s final word at last year’s state championship.

“Her winning word was ‘stroganoff,’” she said. “So she always wins with food words.”

The 11-year-old’s technique was different from her competitors — and it worked.

Before spelling each word, Ananya grabbed the microphone and asked the moderator several questions: Definition, please? Can you use it in a sentence? Language of origin? Part of speech? Are there any alternate pronunciations?

Sometimes she wrote the word down on a piece of paper, studied it, crumpled up the paper and then responded.

“I knew the word right away,” Ananya said after winning the elementary competition by correctly spelling “piazza,” an open public area in a town or city. But she still ran through her questions for the moderator. “Just to make sure,” she said.

She knew “babka” right away too, Ananya said. The only word she struggled with was “bolero,” a Spanish dance, which she spelled in the third round of the elementary competition.

The straight-A student spends about an hour each day studying spelling words — on top of her usual homework — to prepare for the Spelling Bee.

Her favorite subject in school has nothing to do with letters.

“I like math,” she said.

But she also has a passion for reading.

“I’ve read all seven Harry Potter books,” Ananya said. She even finished “Lord of the Flies” during the lunch break between competitions. Ananya and her family celebrated the win by attending an open house at Fugman Elementary and, of course, the school’s book fair.

Ananya will represent Fresno County and try to defend her title at the state championship next month in Stockton. Then she’ll head to National Harbor, Maryland, to compete in the national competition for the first time.

“It’s like a different ballgame,” Poliyedath said.

Ananya said she is excited to meet the nation’s top spellers and be on national television. Willem Kuenen, an eighth-grader at Clay Elementary School in Kingsburg, is the alternate if Ananya is unable to attend the national championship.

Ananya was presented with a dictionary, a year’s subscription to Encyclopaedia Britannica, and a paid trip to Washington D.C. for herself and one family member. Luckily, Ananya won’t have to choose who she’ll take across the country, her mother said.

“We’re all going to go,” said Poliyedath. “We’re going to turn it into a family vacation.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Super speller: Clovis Unified student wins county competition, prepares for state and national Spelling Bees."