Alva Review-Courier -

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The end of the biggest Scripps National Spelling Bee in history came abruptly, and it wasn't the conclusion that many expected. Naysa Modi, a poised and charismatic four-time participant whose long spelling career seemed to be building toward triumph, sat next to a newcomer whom she had already beaten this year — at the county level.

But 12-year-old Naysa blinked immediately, mixing up the single and double "s'' in the German-derived word "Bewusstseinslage" — a state of consciousness or a feeling devoid of sensory components — and 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani seized an opp...