Colorado wordsmith Nikhil Ganta was toppled by “carreta.”
The 12-year-old incorrectly spelled the noun, which means a two-wheeled cart, during the first round of Wednesday’s semifinals.
“It was a great experience,” Nikhil said via text after his loss. “I was honored to have my school, teachers and Colorado rooting for me. I was hoping to make it to the semifinals this year and, hopefully, the journey continues farther in 2027.”
Fifty-four kids made the semifinals, and that number was slashed to just nine who advanced to Thursday night’s finals.
Nikhil, who lives in Timnath and attends Fort Collins’ Kinard Core Knowledge Middle School, had a winning morning at the Washington, D.C., competition among the dwindling group of America’s best young spellers.
The sixth-grader correctly defined “verbose,” meaning “wordy,” and nailed the spellings of “obtect,” a type of insect pupa enclosed in a firm case or covering with the appendages held tightly against the body, and “karyogram,” a diagrammatic representation of an organism’s chromosome complement.
Standing before the microphone on the Constitution Hall stage, Nikhil asked for the latter word’s definition, language of origin and other identifying information while his fingers mimed typing.
After a short break, the spellers gathered for the afternoon semifinals. But the two-wheeled cart took Nikhil down. He said “thank you” as he walked away from the microphone for the last time this year.
The 12-year-old had advanced to the nearly century-old national contest by winning the in March.
Nikhil was the last Colorado kid standing Wednesday, as Superior’s Derek Li was felled by a written test in round three of Tuesday’s preliminaries.
Wednesday’s quarterfinals and semifinals consisted of oral spelling and vocabulary rounds on a big stage in front of a sprawling audience.
