Tulare County has a new spelling bee champion.
On Thursday, Nicole Lopez, a seventh-grade student from Carl F. Smith Middle School in Terra Bella, was crowned the 2026 Tulare County Spelling Champion. Lopez can now move on to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the Washington, D.C. area, May 26-28.
In second place was Summer Lee, a fifth-grade student from Heartland Charter School.
Lopez and Lee went head-to-head from rounds 8 to 20, according to Tulare County Office of Education officials.
In round 19, Lee misspelled her word “julienne,” while Lopez spelled “evanescent” correctly. According to spelling bee rules, the competition advanced to round 20, with Lopez having to spell a new word correctly.
She spelled “execrable” to win the competition.
There was a three-way tie for third place between Jason Anthony, an eighth-grade student at Valley Life Charter School, Vedant Pandey, a seventh-grade student at Oak Grove Elementary, and Dean Wong, a seventh-grade student from Sequoia Middle School.
Elementary and middle school students from 100 Tulare County schools competed in this year’s spelling bee, which was held at Tulare County Office of Education.
The spelling master was Scot Hillman. Spelling bee judges were:
Since its founding, Tulare County Spelling Championship has been a partnership between Tulare County Office of Education and Visalia Times-Delta.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Nicole Lopez wins 2026 Tulare County Spelling Championship
Reporting by Sheyanne N Romero, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
