THE 2015 SPELLING BEE POOL: Forty-nine amazing spellers remain.
Our rules are similar to those in years past -- we have one remaining five-timer (Vanya Shivashankar), and three spellers returning for their fourth year (Gokul Venkatachalam, Dylan O'Connor Katharine Wang). The use of these veterans will be restricted.
So: pick two spellers, only one of whom can be one of the four spellers above. While individual spellers can be used more than once, you cannot repeat the same pairing that someone else has already submitted. First come, first served, and you cannot choose a speller once s/he spells tomorrow morning.
You will get one point for each word your spellers correctly spell during tomorrow's rounds of the Bee, which resumes at 10am eastern on ESPN2. In addition, each speller will receive an additional point for reaching primetime, to account for the computer-based cutoff after tomorrow's three live rounds. Most points wins; tiebreaker will be whoever has the individual speller going the furthest. Do not edit your entry after you've made it; if you need to make corrections, reply to your original comment.
It's my blog, so I go first: Gokul Venkatachalam, the vet who went the longest last year, and Sara-Beth McPherson, the 26th and final Jamaican national champion coached by the late Rev. Glen Archer. [I came really close to picking Tejas Muthusamy, but I cannot bring myself to picking a sixth-grader.]
Previous pool winners are Elicia Chamberlin in 2006 (Close/Hooks), Professor Jeff and Amy tied in 2007 (O'Dorney and Thomas/Horton), KJ in 2008 (Mishra/K Shivashankar), Cagey (K Shivashankar/Pastapur) in 2009, Bob Loblaw/Jenn tied in 2010 (Veeramani and Chemudupaty/Denniss); 2011's winner was Nupur Lala (the Roy/Ye Keystone combo); Bobby in 2012 (Nandipati/Mahankali); Sara Miller in 2013 (Mahankali/Sivakumar), and Bobby again in 2014 (Venkatachalam/Hathwar).
Gokul Venkatachalam and Dev Jaiswal.
ReplyDeleteGoing with my "perfect on the written" pair.
Three entries, for me and the kids:
ReplyDeleteMe: Gokul & Cole
Molly C.: Gokul & Sai
Noa C.: Vanya and Jairam
Gokul and Samuel Pereles, please. :)
ReplyDeleteVanya
ReplyDeleteOrentlicher
I came very close to going with Sam instead of Cole.
ReplyDeleteVanya Shrivashankar and Muriel Cotman
ReplyDeleteI would like Vanya Shivashankar and Dev Jaiswal, please. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI considered Sam and Cole pretty strongly as well.
ReplyDeleteVanya and Ankita Vadiala, please.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter Lucy is taking Gokul Venkatachalam ("because he likes the X-Men") and Cy Orentlicher ("he has broccoli head.")
ReplyDeleteI was debating between Vanya and Gokul, but knew I wanted Dev as my second choice. Thanks for making my decision, Marsha! :-)
ReplyDeleteI will be very interested to see how Cole does. I'm always excited when somebody who flies under the radar (comparatively) does much better than we're expecting. Exhibit A: Ansun last year.
ReplyDeleteSound reasoning.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna go with Vanya and Tejas.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I missed that the Reverend Archer had died.
ReplyDeleteAnkita is my Virginia vote, plus she came in 13th last year. Could've gone with Sam Pereles for another Virginian (came in 12th), but I went with closest to my home town. I love that Sam used some of his prize money to fund a Little Free Library.
ReplyDeleteFirst I'd heard of it too. Almost as much an institution as Dr. Cameron was.
ReplyDeleteGokul and Paul Keaton. Is it my year? Who's to say.
ReplyDeleteNobody's picking River Blount. Is it because a kid who lives without television is anathema on an entertainment blog? :-)
ReplyDeleteGokul and Shobha Dasari!
ReplyDeleteI almost picked Tejas. He's got a great shot.
ReplyDeleteGoing with an against-the-grain pairing:
ReplyDeleteDylan O'Connor and Paul Keaton
Lily Mears (reasonably close to my sister in Michigan, plus writing Elvish script and "81 Batman characters") and Katharine Wang (4-timer, and the only NJ rep).
ReplyDeleteBecause sixth graders almost never win.
ReplyDeleteVanya and Eesha Sohail are my picks
ReplyDeleteIf not this year, then some other year soon!
ReplyDeleteGokul and Ankita Vadiala
ReplyDeleteYay Katharine! If I could've picked her and Vanya I would have. :)
ReplyDeleteI wonder why Dev was not in the Bee the past 2 years?
ReplyDeleteCooper Komatsu and Melina Gabele
ReplyDeleteVanya and Siyona
ReplyDeleteStatewide runner-up in 2013, and if there's only one finalist from the whole state, that's tough.
ReplyDeleteKatharine Wang and Ankita Vadiala, please!
ReplyDeleteVanya + Sam!!! Oh man, next year will be said when I can't pick a Shivashankar.
ReplyDeleteOof... all my teams I was thinking of were taken, but let's go crazy and say:
ReplyDeleteGokul and Tejas. (I don't think Tejas will win, but dang, he got REALLY far last year.)
Cole and Jillian. Her hobbies are rifle shooting, tap dance, and classic TV. The girl's got RANGE!
ReplyDeleteVanya Shrivashankar and Srinath Mahankali
ReplyDeleteI almost picked this pairing. I think it's a great one!
ReplyDeleteI love this competition every year and look forward to defending my championship! I'll go with Vanya and Shobha Dasari
ReplyDeleteVanya & Paul Keaton
ReplyDeleteKatherine Wang and Cole Shafer-Ray
ReplyDeleteKatharine and Dev please!
ReplyDeleteDev and Arjun
ReplyDeleteOooh, made it in before the deadline!
ReplyDeleteI pick our awesome local spelling hero, Sam Pereles, and - because nothing beats a voracious reader who will hand-paint her bedroom - Michelle Yakubek.
As always, the deadline is this: once a speller is called to the microphone this morning, he or she can no longer be selected. So 10am EDT isn't a hard deadline for everyone, but you'd better be typing quickly.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm in under the wire:
ReplyDeleteI'm picking:
Vanya Shivashankar
Sai Vishundhi Chandrasekhar
I want to change my pick to Dev and Shobha Dasari.
ReplyDeleteNeither have spelled yet this morning.
ReplyDeleteI am uncomfortable with changing spellers, or even keeping the choices open at all, now that the rankings are out.
ReplyDelete