Lake County spelling bee champ crowned

Aniket Nuthalapati, an eighth-grader at Aptakisic Junior High School, was the winner of the Lake County Final Spelling Bee competition March 19. Aniket will travel to Washington, D.C. to compete in the Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, May 24-30. All expenses for the seven-day trip will be paid cooperatively by the Lake County Regional Office of Education and the Jelly Belly Candy Company. Sharanya Pastapur, a fifth-grader at Seth Paine Elementary School was runner-up. The other finalists were: Alexandra Carrera, Our Lake of Humility School; Kaiden Love, Our Savior's Lutheran School; Timothy Thieme, Westlake Christian Academy; Elizabeth Hughes, North Prairie Junior High; Hope Cabalfin, Woodland Intermediate West; Saranya Menon, Woodland Middle; Josh Smoron, Viking Middle; Anmol Dash, Daniel Wright Junior High; Ellianah Murcia, W.J. Murphy Elementary; Liam Starnes, Barrington Middle School-Station Campus.