Texas Speller Faizan Zaki Advances to Finals of National Spelling Bee

OXON HILL, Md. — Faizan Zaki, a 13-year-old speller from Plano, Texas, advanced to the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee after spelling the word ‘coterell’ correctly on Wednesday. This year, 243 champion spellers competed, with 22 hailing from Texas.

Zaki has participated in the competition four times and finished as runner-up last year. This national contest, held just outside Washington, D.C., is a significant milestone for many young spellers, but for Zaki, it carries added pressure as a returning finalist.

“I’ve heard a lot of people view that I’m the favorite,” Zaki said in an interview. “I don’t know about that personally… I just don’t want to let anybody down.”

The seventh grader at Rice Middle School spent about eight hours daily preparing for the competition. Zaki’s hard work paid off; he was the only speller to achieve a perfect score on the written test taken during the third round. His performance included correctly spelling challenging words such as ‘appertain’ and ‘anenterous.’

In total, 22 Texas spellers participated this year, including fellow North Texans Avishka Dudala and Shreyansh Zadoo, both of whom were eliminated in earlier rounds. Dudala exited in the seventh round after misspelling ‘voltinism,’ while Zadoo was eliminated on ‘neoteny.’

The finals will be broadcast on ION, where Zaki will compete for a chance to win the Scripps Cup and a $50,000 cash prize. Last year, Florida’s Bruhat Soma won the championship in a dramatic spell-off, besting Zaki in the final moments of the competition.

Texas has a strong history in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, boasting 16 championships, more than any other state. The last Texan to win was Harini Logan from San Antonio in 2022.