Kavya Shivashankar and her dad knew exactly what they were going to do if she won the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night.
Before she did much more than grin after spelling "Laodicean" in the 16th round and besting 292 other spellers, the 13-year-old eighth-grader from Olathe, Kan., turned to her dad, Mirle Shivashankar, for a complicated ritual of high and low fives with a few other moves thrown in.
2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion from Scripps on Vimeo.
"That's our signature handshake," her father said while journalists mobbed Kavya.
With the gleaming trophy for the 82nd Bee her own, she quickly gave him credit as her coach.
"I couldn't have done this without him," she said.
The fourth time at the national Bee was the charm for Kavya.
She searched for the right words for how it feels to be the champ and win more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.
"Right now I'm feeling really excited, ecstatic. It's kind of hard to describe," Kavya, who aspires to be a neurosurgeon, said.
She might not be the last Shivashankar scooping up top honors at the Bee.
Her 7-year-old sister Vanya was an energetic presence during this week's events. She even asked a question - would Kavya be bored during the championship finals? -- during the semifinalists' press conference Thursday afternoon.
She's thinking of taking her turn in the Bee, and her dad is already encouraging the idea.
Little Vanya will have a new coach to help her now, Mirle Shivashankar said, indicating Kavya.
The championship rounds were far from boring right up until the moment Kavya spelled the final word, "Laodicean," meaning a person who is lukewarm or indifferent, especially in religion.
Second place went to Tim Ruiter, 12, from Centreville, Va.
Eleven elite wordsmiths bumped brains in the finals of the Bee televised live during prime time. They'd had a few hours to rest after jousting through three rounds of semifinals in three-and-a-half mind-pulverizing hours earlier Thursday.
The evening competition, hosted by Tom Bergeron of "America's Funniest Home Videos," was marked by drama, heartbreak and excitement.
Nobody had to tell Neetu Chandak of Seneca Falls, N.Y., to celebrate good times. The 13-year-old bent over, threw her hands up in victory and said, "Yes!" after acing "ophelimity" - economic gratification.
Her elation came just before the bell rang for the first time Thursday night, signaling the first speller felled in the first round of the finals.
"Herniorrhaphy," a surgical term, cut Tussah Heera of Las Vegas, Nev., out of the competition. The 13-year-old eighth-grader rushed to her mother, who patted her face soothingly as Heera began to cry.
During a commercial break in the live broadcast on ABC, 14-year-old Leah Amor Marie Isip of Dover, Del., ran up to get a hug from Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden and an English teacher.
Biden gave the kids a pep talk before the competition went live, emphasizing the importance of confidence. She told the 293 Bee participants that they "were among the best and the brightest, and I'm really proud of you."
Biden shared that she was the championship speller of her sixth-grade class, but on the morning she was to compete at the next level she changed her mind.
"I was so nervous and so shy that I told my mom I was sick," Biden said. "I've always regretted that."
Then Biden took her seat in the front row, at least one Secret Service agent seated nearby just in case of d-a-n-g-e-r.
Some of the bright youngsters vying for top speller have experience being in a verbal foxhole together like Kavya and Sidharth Chand of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
"Even though we're competitors, we know that the only thing that can defeat us is the dictionary," Kavya said.
In the semis, the two 13-year-olds -- both considered favorites to become the 2009 champ -- gave a standing ovation to fellow veteran Bee competitor Josephine Kao of Roseville, Calif.
"She's a friend, and she's been here the same number of times I've been here," said Kavya, who wrapped up her fourth national Bee with a big win. She is the first Kansan to take the top prize since Peg McCarthy of Topeka won in 1978.
One of the biggest surprises of the evening came when Sidharth struggled with "apodyterium," a dressing room at the entrance of Greek or Roman baths. Sidharth finished second in last year's Bee, but the complicated, ancient word was his undoing when he spelled it "apodeiterium."
At the ding, he covered his face with his hands as the crowd groaned. While Sidharth walked to his family on the other side of the stage, his fellow finalists, their families onstage and the audience stood and applauded. Sidharth again hid his face, but then he propped his chin on his fist and watched the action.
Neetu smiled right to the end of her time in the Bee. When she tentatively spelled "derriengue," leaving out an "r," she grinned and said, "Ding."
Shivashankar took home $30,000 in cash and more than $10,000 in prizes. Runner-up Ruiter received $12,500. Third place, Aishwarya Pastapur of Springfield, Ill., received $7,500. The cash prizes diminished with each rank, down to a minimum of $100 for each participant.
Trish Choate can be reached at choatet(at)shns.com.
INFO BOX
Scripps National Spelling Bee Finalists
Eleven spellers made the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee televised Thursday night. In order of finish:
1. Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kan.
2. Tim A. Ruiter of Centreville, Va.
3. Aishwarya Eshwar Pastapur of Springfield, Ill.
4. Kyle M. Mou of Peoria, Ill.
5. Anamika Veeramani of North Royalton, Ohio
6. Kennyi Kwaku Aouad of Terre Haute, Ind.
7. Ramya Auroprem of San Jose, Calif.
8. Neetu Chandak of Seneca Falls, N.Y.
9. Sidharth Chand of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
10. Serena Skye Laine-Lobsinger of West Palm Beach, Fla.
11. Tussah Heera of Las Vegas, Nev.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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