4 suburban spellers among 13 Illinois finalists competing in Scripps National Spelling Bee

Focus on the words given instead of the pressure of being in the spotlight.

That’s the advice Visharad Sathish got from older brother Sahasrad as a strategy for being a contestant on the biggest stage there is for spellers.

Three-time Scripps National Spelling Bee finalist, Sahasrad Sathish was eliminated just minutes into the eighth round of the 2022 contest after he couldn’t spell “cypsela” correctly. But he tied for ninth place out of 234 spellers that year.

Now following in Sahasrad’s footsteps, Visharad Sathish of Grayslake is among four suburban spellers competing next week in the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

“I’m pretty excited and nervous,” said the 12-year-old seventh-grader at Lake Forest Country Day School. “It is nerve-wracking to compete on stage in front of everyone.”

The three other suburban contestants are: Tyler Kochanski of Fox River Grove, Yahya Mohammed of Hoffman Estates, and Shruthi Ayyagari of Aurora.

The competition is in Maryland and starts Tuesday and running through Thursday. The semifinals will air live at 7 p.m. Wednesday on ION. The finals will air starting at the same time Thursday.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the iconic American competition, first held in 1925 with just nine participants, according to its website. This year’s 243 national qualifiers, ranging in age from 8 to 14 years old, advanced through local and regional bees that took place through the end of March.

Most contestants have been preparing for this moment from an early age.

Visharad began competing in spelling contents starting in fifth grade. He made it to the Lake County regional spelling bee finals in fifth and sixth grades, but won it only this year in March qualifying him for nationals, said his father, Sathish Sathyamurthy.

“We are doing the same thing as what we did for our elder son … as parents we have been through the exercise before,” said Sathyamurthy of supporting Visharad at nationals. “We are proud of what he has accomplished in qualifying for the National Spelling Bee.”

He and wife Vidhya Ramachandran and son Sahasrad — now a rising senior at Lake Forest Academy — will be cheering from the sidelines at the competition.

While competing on the national stage will be a new experience for Visharad, “because he knew what his elder brother did, there is going to be some familiarity,” Sathyamurthy said.

Visharad said he has managed to maintain his composure and confidence in his abilities so far.

“That was my strategy for winning the regionals,” he said. “I’m trying to follow my brother’s advice and strategies when he was competing in the nationals to gain confidence in myself.”

Like most young spellers, Visharad spends any free time he has after schoolwork and extracurricular activities training for the Bee.

His other interests include listening to music and playing the flute and the mridangam, a double-headed, barrel-shaped drum used in Carnatic music from South India. He also loves to solve challenging math problems, reads extensively to help build vocabulary and plays chess “because it’s like a good workout for my brain.”

His fellow suburban competitors similarly have varied interests.

Tyler Kochanski, 14, an eighth-grader at Saints Peter & Paul School in Cary, competes in a variety of sports, including cross country, basketball, volleyball and track. He likes playing video games and trying new things, especially in food and places.

“I’m excited but I also feel nervous since … this is going to be my first and my last year competing at nationals,” Tyler said. “I’m just nervous because I wanna win. I’m feeling pretty confident. I’ve studied just around 50 hours already.”

Tyler now is focusing on learning the roots of words and studying the unabridged Merriam-Webster, the official dictionary for the contest.

“There’s over 476,000 words in that book,” he said.

His mother, Becky Kochanski, a 911 dispatcher, has been impressed with Tyler’s dedication in preparing for nationals.

“He gave up friends and video games to make sure that he had time enough to study so he could make it to nationals,” she said. “I’m happy for him and I’m nervous for him.”

Yahya Mohammed, 13, a seventh-grader at Larsen Middle School in Elgin, has previous National Spelling Bee experience having tied for 60th place in the 2024 contest. He enjoys watching sports and is a big fan of the Chicago teams — Bears, Cubs and Bulls. He also likes playing video games, trying different foods, watching game shows, traveling, social studies and learning about other countries.

This is Shruthi Ayyagari’s first time participating in the National Spelling Bee — a dream she never really thought would come true.

“It’s very exciting but I’m also a little bit nervous,” said the 13-year-old seventh-grader at Francis Granger Middle School in Aurora, who pursues classical music, dance and visual arts, likes painting and drawing and plays the cello. “And now that I am here, it’s a lot to think about.”

Shruthi has been prepping for the contest by studying the methods of past winners and running through Bee word lists each night with mother Madhuri Ayyagari, who works in data analytics for a health care company.

“We are very proud of her getting this far and we think that this is a big achievement already,” Madhuri Ayyagari said. “We just want her to go there and have fun without any pressure, and whatever happens is just secondary.”

To follow how these spellers are doing in the contest, visit spellingbee.com.