Aanya Mehta was crowned the champion from a field of 90 students in the Middle School Spelling Bee

Aanya Mehta’s passion for reading was quite valuable when she stood on stage at the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School auditorium on Wednesday, January 22.

She was joined on the stage that morning by five of her schoolmates, who were all striving to be able to spell words proposed to them correctly.

The annual Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School Spelling Bee was being contested, and once 13 rounds were completed that day, Aanya stood alone on the stage.

A 7th Grader, Aanya, secured the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School Spelling Bee championship when she successfully spelled the word EGOTISTICAL correctly once she was presented by the event's coordinator and pronouncer, Lindsay Rath.

Aanya revealed that she “likes reading, which helps with spelling.”

Aanya emerged as the champion from a field of 90 fellow students when the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School Spelling Bee started earlier this month.

The 7th Grade round with 50 students was competed on Wednesday, January 15, and the 8th Grade round with 40 students was contested on Thursday, January 16..

Ms. Rath, a Latin Teacher at the Middle School, was joined during the final-round competition by three judges—School Counselors Alyssa Carothers, Julia Meisterich, and Lsa Patrocinio, a 7th Grade Science Teacher.

Below are all of the words that Aanya spelled correctly to win the championship;

Probation, artificial, alighted, eulogy, conspiratorial, operant, algebraic, circumspectly, buccaneer, vociferous, camouflaged, Byzantine, gallipot, catechism, Chernobyl, protocol, egotistical

The next step for Aanya is the Regional Spelling Bee, which will take place on March 2 and will be held in the South Orange Performing Arts Center.

The runner-up in the Middle School Spelling Bee was another 7th Grader, Aashi Raina, who will serve as the school’s alternate for the Regional Spelling Bee.

Here are the names of the students who advanced to the final round on January 22.

7th Grade:

Sahishn Bangaru

Akshan Arun Bhaskar

Aanya Mehta

Aashi Raina

8th Grade:

Atifa Zaynah Ashik Ahamed

Auryn Bartido (was absent and did not participate in the final round on January 22)

Advik Narasimhan

Ms. Rath enjoyed her role as coordinator and pronouncer for this contest.

“The Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School Spelling Bee is one of my favorite events of the year,” she said. “It is a wonderful opportunity to see our talented students shine by spelling words they've memorized and ones they've never seen or heard before.”

Ms. Rath added:

“The judges are always impressed to see our students spell some words correctly that we teachers would probably make a mistake on!”

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