{"id":198630,"date":"2026-03-01T00:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/198630\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:09:12","slug":"teen-spells-her-way-to-victory-for-second-time-in-orange-county-spelling-bee-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/198630\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen spells her way to victory for second time in Orange County Spelling Bee \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Katie Chan congratulates her son, Riley, 13, after he made...\" class=\"size-article_inline\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-01-MS.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Katie Chan congratulates her son, Riley, 13, after he made it to the ninth round of the Orange County Spelling Bee and was knocked out with the word, \u201cmerganser\u201d in Costa Mesa on Saturday, February 28, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The pressure mounts as Justin Lee and Catherine Kuo make...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-02-MS.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-02-MS.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The pressure mounts as Justin Lee and Catherine Kuo make it to the final rounds of the Orange County Spelling Bee in Costa Mesa on Saturday, February 28, 2026. Kuo went on to win second place. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Kallan Cagle reacts to losing the round during the Orange...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-03-MS.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-03-MS.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kallan Cagle reacts to losing the round during the Orange County Spelling Bee in Costa Mesa on Saturday, February 28, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Contestants appear lost in thought as they wait their turn...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-04-MS-1.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-04-MS-1.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Contestants appear lost in thought as they wait their turn to compete in the Orange County Spelling Bee in Costa Mesa on Saturday, February 28, 2026. Seated are Riley Chan, from left, Justin Lee, Catherine Kuo, Advika Prasad, and Jooha Lee. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sydney Tran of El Rancho Charter School in Anaheim, takes...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-08-MS.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-08-MS.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sydney Tran of El Rancho Charter School in Anaheim, takes first place for the second year in a row in the Orange County Spelling Bee on Saturday, February 28, 2026. She correctly spelled, \u201ccharcuterie.\u201d (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Spectators watch children compete in the 63rd annual Orange County...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-05-MS.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-05-MS.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Spectators watch children compete in the 63rd annual Orange County Spelling Bee in Costa Mesa on<br \/>\nSaturday, February 28, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The parents of Advika Prasad, 14, Shweta Suman and Rishitosh...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-06-MS.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-06-MS.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The parents of Advika Prasad, 14, Shweta Suman and Rishitosh Prasad, are on the edge of their seats as she competes in the Orange County Spelling Bee in Costa Mesa on She made it to a late round and was finally stumped by the word \u201cjicama.\u201d (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Advika Prasad, 14, is surrounded by the empty chairs of...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-07-MS.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-07-MS.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Advika Prasad, 14, is surrounded by the empty chairs of competitors who were knocked out of the Orange County Spelling Bee on Saturday, February 28, 2026. Prasad was unable to spell \u201cjicama.\u201d (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The 63rd annual Orange County Spelling Bee winners are photographed...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-09-MS.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OCR-L-SPELLINGBEE26-0229-09-MS.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The 63rd annual Orange County Spelling Bee winners are photographed after winning in Costa Mesa on Saturday, February 28, 2026. Katie Chan won first, Catherine Kuo won second and Jooha Lee won third. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 9<\/p>\n<p>Katie Chan congratulates her son, Riley, 13, after he made it to the ninth round of the Orange County Spelling Bee and was knocked out with the word, \u201cmerganser\u201d in Costa Mesa on Saturday, February 28, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n<p>They came to battle, their weapons consonants and vowels.<\/p>\n<p>Victory was spelled: charcuterie.<\/p>\n<p>And delivering the correct spelling was a veteran of the contest, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2025\/03\/01\/el-rancho-7th-grader-spellers-her-way-to-represent-oc-in-national-bee\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sydney Tran, the 2025 winner of the Orange County Spelling Bee.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tran, an El Rancho Charter School eighth grader, now goes on to represent the county <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2025\/05\/27\/students-from-la-oc-to-compete-in-scripps-national-spelling-bee\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">for a second year at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held in late May in Washington, D.C. Last year she tied for 100th place.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There were 32 spellers who won their district-level bees to advance to Saturday\u2019s county finals. Stepping forward one after the other, they spelled words until the winner emerged \u2014 it took 14 rounds. The Orange County Department of Education coordinates the county bee.<\/p>\n<p>Catherine Kuo, a seventh-grader from Fairmont Schools\u2019 Anaheim Hills campus, finished in second place and Jooha Lee, a sixth-grader from Beacon Park K-8 School in the Irvine Unified School District, finished in third.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Katie Chan congratulates her son, Riley, 13, after he made it to the ninth round of the Orange&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,179,15,100,171,611,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-198630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-community","13":"tag-education","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-orange","16":"tag-orange-county","17":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}