OXON HILL, Md. (AP) \u2014 Bruhat Soma was unbeatable before he arrived at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and neither the dictionary, nor his competitors, nor a lightning-round tiebreaker challenged him on the way to victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bruhat spelled 29 words correctly in the tiebreaker, beating Faizan Zaki by nine, to win the title on Thursday night. He receives a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 12-year-old seventh-grader from Tampa, Florida, had won three consecutive bees before arriving at a convention center outside Washington for the most prestigious spelling competition in the English language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI always want to win. And this was, like, my main goal,\u201d Bruhat said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t matter if I won all those other bees. This is what I was aiming for. So I\u2019m just really happy that I won this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bee began with eight finalists, the fewest since 2010, and it was clear from the outset that Scripps was trying to fill the 2-hour broadcast window on Ion, a network owned by the Cincinnati-based media company. There were frequent lengthy commercial breaks that allowed spellers to mill about at the side of the stage, chatting with their coaches, relatives and supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then bee officials announced it was time for the tiebreaker, known as a \u201cspell-off,\u201d before Bruhat and Faizan were even given a chance to spell against each other in a conventional round.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n