MCOE and MCSD Students Emerge as Top Spellers of the 2025 Merced County Spelling Bee

The Merced County Spelling Bee concluded with top spellers from Merced County Office of Education and Merced City School District. Held at the MCOE Downtown Center, and sponsored by Educational Employees Credit Union, the annual written competition hosted more than 100 elementary and junior high spellers from schools across the county.

Akshara Thummala from Merced Scholars Charter School earned first place in the elementary competition with the word surreptitious. Thummala completed the competition without misspelling a single word. This is the first time an MCOE student took first place in the competition.

Danika Vou from Grasslands Elementary School finished in second and Marie Smith from Juniper Elementary School finished third place. MCOE Director of Human Resources Stacy Shasky moderated the event.

For the junior high competition, Aanashra Afrooz from Cruickshank Middle School earned first place with the word paduasoy. Afrooz earned second place in the junior high competition last year.

Zoe O'Donnell from Hoover Middle School earned second place and Aliyah Bebero from Cruickshank Middle School earned third. MCOE Senior Coordinator Holly Crivelli moderated the junior high event.

The first and second place spellers will advance to the California State Spelling Bee, held at Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca this spring. If the first or second place spellers are unable to attend, the third place speller will go in their place.