Murrieta Speller Falls Just Short in National Bee

Top Murrieta speller Shruti Amin fell just short Wednesday of points needed to advance to the semi-final round at the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Representing Riverside County, Shruti breezed through rounds two and three, spelling words such as "litany" and "minaret" correctly at the bee being held at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington, D.C.

She came two points short of advancing to semi-finals after combining the written round score from round one, said Sejal Amin, Shruti's mother, in an email.

The first round—a 50-word computer spelling test, with 25 words counting toward the scores—was held Tuesday, with each correct answer worth one point. The test scores were combined with the second- and third-round
results to determine the semifinalists.

There were 253 spellers of 278 who spelled correctly in the oral round two and 240 spellers who spelled correctly in the oral round three. Each correct spelling resulted in a three-point bonus being added to their round one scores, according to Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Fifty spellers moved on to semi-finals, which will be aired Thursday on ESPN2. The final round will be aired Thursday evening on ESPN.

"She is not upset," wrote her mother, after Shruti was eliminated. "She made some friends here and is going to help study two of them, who made it to semi-finals. It was a great once in a lifetime experience. She will relax now and is ready to jump in the hotel pool!"

Shruti, 14, is an eighth-grader at . She won the Murrieta Valley Unified School District Spelling Bee several years in a row. After winning the Riverside County Bee in March, Shruti was able to fulfill her dream of competing in the national bee.

"One of the things... that really makes her fantastic is her family support," Thompson Middle School Principal Dale B. Velk told City News Service.

"Her sister Suchi was a spelling champion also. They practice together together all of the time. I think it started off as kind of being fun and then it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. It just blossomed into this passion for her. She really wants to win it."

Shruti has been playing piano for seven years, enjoys playing tennis and camping, is president of her school's community service club, vice president of its science club and treasurer of the National Junior Honor Society.

"She is a fantastic representative of Thompson Middle School," Velk said. "Nicest kid, nicest family, always positive, always doing the right thing, always making good choices. You couldn't ask for a better student."

—City News Service contributed to this report