M-Y-X-O-V-I-R-U-S Puts Talented South Bay Girl On The Road To Scripps National Spelling Bee

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- A 12-year-old from the South Bay is going to take her first trip to the nation's capital to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Meera Suresh beat out 48 competitors at the CBS Bay Area Regional Spelling Bee Saturday afternoon, at the KPIX 5 studios in San Francisco.

Her competition was tough. All the contestants were school champions who had competed in a written test to advance to Saturday's oral bee. By the end of the third round, 13 had misspelled and been eliminated.

By the end of round five, the field narrowed from 31 to 18.

Three intense hours had passed, and only 3 students remained – fourth grader Anisha Rao, 6th grader Rutvik Gandhasri, and Meera, a 7th grader at Warren E. Hyde Middle School in Cupertino.

The final word in round 10 was m-y-x-o-v-i-r-u-s and Meera was the last one standing!

KPIX President and General Manager Bruno Cohen did the honors of congratulating her. Former National Bee champion Stephanie Petit helped present a gold medal and a dictionary. Meera was ecstatic.

"Really excited, it's my 4th year trying. I've been waiting for this," she said beaming with pride.

She'd correctly spelled words like basophilic, elliptocytes, and osteocyte... words her mother said she couldn't spell.

"Is this really happening? Did she really win?" Jeya Suresh had to pinch herself to make sure this was not a dream.

As she was leaving, Meera told KPIX 5 was going to finish her homework as fast as she could in the car ride home so she can start preparing up for the national competition right away. How do you spell p-r-e-p-a-r-e-d? She will be.

Good luck Meera!