Merced County student wins 2nd Place at California Elementary Spelling Bee

A student from Merced County was among the top winners at the recent California State Elementary Spelling Bee.

Rishabh Saha, a sixth-grader from Burbank Elementary School, was the runner-up at the event, which was hosted by the San Joaquin County Office of Education in Stockton.

Students from counties across the state competed in the written state championship competition, according to a news release from the Merced County Office of Eduation.

Saha placed first at the Merced County Spelling Bee in March, and then advanced to the state competition where he placed second out of 36 other fourth through sixth grade students from counties across the state, the release said.

This is the highest a student from Merced County has placed in the California State Elementary Spelling Bee in recent history.

Before Saha, the highest placed student was Nikhil Parikh from Sheehy Elementary in 2017, who placed as a top 7 finalist in the state competition.

Saha, who was joined by his father Ramendra Nath Saha at the competition, was eliminated in round six on the 81st word.

The final round of the competition featured words like: colloquy, whippoorwill and opprobrious. The final word was bacciferous, the release said.

When asked to give advice to future spellers, Saha said, “Have fun while doing this.”