After competing in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Aiden Devmina Wijeyakulasuriya knew that he had one year of eligibility left should he wish to return to Maryland for the 2024 national spelling bee.
Wijeyakulasuriya’s last attempt paid off. On March 16, he was declared the victor at Wisconsin’s 2024 Badger State Spelling Bee over 49 other statewide student participants, according to a press release.
In December, Wijeyakulasuriya, now 13, won his school spelling bee at Blessed Sacrament School in Madison as an eighth grade student. That victory advanced him to the Madison All-City Spelling Bee on Feb. 17 at the Mitby Theatre on the Madison Area Technical College campus where he was hoping for a third consecutive victory.
Despite high hopes and many past achievements in spelling competitions, Wijeyakulasuriya lost and settled as first runner-up to Luis Vincent Bautista, 13, of Verona. Bautista is an eighth grade student at St. Maria Goretti Catholic School in Madison, winning city spelling bee honors for the first time.
Wijeyakulasuriya incorrectly spelled “spectatoritis,” which Bautista correctly spelled along with the next word, “menudo” to win the 76th annual city spelling competition.
Bautista returned to the Mitby Theatre stage last month and was one of the 50 statewide entrants hoping for a ticket to advance to the national spelling bee later next month. After the contest was held last year for the first time at the newly-opened Starlight Theatre in downtown Madison, the state event returned to the Mitby Theatre in 2024. Incidentally, Verona hosted the Wisconsin spelling bee competitions from 1997 to 2005.
Competing as Contestant #43, Bautista has correctly spelled such words as ‘luminance,” “reprieve,” “reminiscent” and “sirenian” before he finally made it among the top six finalists in the competition, which also included Wijeyakulasuriya and nearby competitor Dhyana Vinoth, 14, of Madison. Vinoth is an eighth grader at EAGLE School who earned her spelling bee victory on her sixth attempt in January.
The anxious final sextet stood in line for Round #13 when each surprisingly misspelled their word, leaving the audience in shock and the students repetitively returning to the stage almost in circles. In a bizarre circumstance, all six lost again in Round #14. During Round #15, Vinoth heard the bell ring on the word “ebbet,” a common green newt found in portions of eastern United States.
Bautista, the son of Ryndon and Sheila Bautista of Verona, was defeated in his erroneous spelling of “vindaloo,” a curried dish of Indian origin made with meat or shellfish, garlic and wine or vinegar.
Vinoth and Bautista tied for third place along with Ethan Robert, of New Berlin, and Jacob Martonita, of Appleton, the release states. Katherine Claire Moore, 13, the third-place finisher at the Madison spelling bee from Spring Harbor School, lost in Round #7.
Ultimately, the last four rounds were between Wijeyakulasuriya and returning 2023 top six contestant Nethraa Muthupandiyaraja, 13, of Franklin. When she incorrectly spelled her word in Round #19, a sudden gasp and hush developed in the theater awaiting the fate for Wijeyakulasuriya.
Standing poised and confident, he correctly spelled “laloplegia” and then “prescience.” After which, Wijeyakulasuriya was told by the spelling bee pronouncer, Bradley Griffith Williams, that he was the 2024 state spelling bee champion.
Incidentally, Williams, who works at a La Crosse radio station, is a native of Prairie du Chien and was the 1969 state spelling bee champion. Veteran Cooperative Education Service Agency (CESA) District 5 spelling bee director and retired teacher Jane McMahon, of Poynette – who also ran February’s Madison spelling bee – organized the state spelling bee for the first time.
McMahon applauded Wijeyakulasuriya’s achievement and persistence that resulted in his second consecutive state triumph. Last year, Wijeyakulasuriya became the first Middleton resident to have won the Wisconsin spelling bee, which began in 1911 – the earliest known year of its existence.
This year the top two finalists at the Badger State Spelling Bee will advance to the national spelling bee, scheduled for May 28-29 in National Harbor, Maryland. The final rounds will be televised live on the ION cable network.
Muthupandiyaraja will join Wijeyakulasuriya in the national contest. He hopes to do better than his tied 21st place finish last year among 230 entrants, which ended with him incorrectly guessing an answer during a vocabulary round. He also competed in the 2019 national competition when he tied for 51st place.
Wijeyakulasuriya aims to become the second Wisconsinite to earn the Scripps National Spelling Bee title after Joanne Marie Lagatta, then 13, of Clintonville, won the 64th annual national spelling contest in 1991 after correctly spelling “antipyretic.” It was her second attempt at nationals after having been the 1989 Wisconsin contestant.
Bautista, who placed 11th in the 2022 Wisconsin spelling bee, is the third member of his family to have won the Madison All-City Spelling Bee, each at the Mitby Theatre. They are the first family to have three siblings as winners of the Madison spelling bee.
Bautista’s older brother, Martius, currently a pre-med sophomore at Lake Forest College in Illinois, won the Madison spelling bee four consecutive times (2014-2017) and was the 2017 state spelling champion. The middle sibling, Francesca (Frankie), was the 2018 city champion who also competed at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2018 as an RSVBee national entry. Both attended the Madison spelling bee contest in February to witness their brother win the city spelling trophy.
Only one Verona resident has earned the state spelling bee honors: Aisha Safiya Khan in 2013, according to the release. She won the Madison spelling bee competitions in 2012 and 2013 as a student at Spring Harbor Middle School in Madison. Khan later won the state spelling championship in 2013.
