Fresno, Visalia students advance in Scripps National Spelling Bee

Warren Li of Fresno and Nicole Lopez of Visalia kept the Central Valley in the hunt for a national title by moving past the preliminaries at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Akshara Thummala of Merced was knocked out in the early rounds, narrowing the region’s field but leaving Fresno and Visalia still on the national stage.

The 2026 competition drew 247 spellers from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Department of Defense schools in Europe, and five countries outside the United States, including the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. The field was split across preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, and Scripps said each round’s second segment was a vocabulary round, a format added in 2021 to test word knowledge and literacy beyond spelling alone.

The Bee was being held at DAR Constitution Hall, and Scripps described Bee Week as more than the televised rounds, with educational workshops, excursions around Washington and other events for spellers and their families. For Fresno County and nearby Tulare County, that made Li’s and Lopez’s progress more than a one-day result. It put two local students in a national bracket built around preparation, composure and mental stamina.

The Central Valley also entered the competition with recent precedent. Ananya Vinay of Fresno won the national title in 2017, and her brother competed in 2021. Visalia’s Sarvadnya Kadam finished second at the 2025 national Bee, and Merced’s Saha tied for seventh in an earlier finals round, showing that the region has remained on the national scoreboard.

Thummala had already proven herself at home before reaching Washington. She won the Merced County regional spelling bee this spring at Merced Scholars Charter School by spelling “untenable,” a result that reflected the local ladder spelling-bee competitors climb from county and regional rounds to the national stage. Scripps said local bees are run by regional officials, not by Scripps itself, and that decisions by national Bee officials are final.

For Fresno-area schools, the result went beyond a single competition. Li’s run gave Fresno another name in a field of 247, and Lopez’s advancement kept Visalia visible in a contest that still carried a strong Central Valley imprint deep into Bee Week.