National Spelling Bee ends in tie for 2nd year; Kansas girl a co-champ

From 1963 to 2013 there was never a year with co-champions. Now it's happened in back-to-back years! Congrats to Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam, Co-Champions of the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee!- courtesy photo — From 1963 to 2013 there was never a year with co-champions. Now it’s happened in back-to-back years! Congrats to Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam, Co-Champions of the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee!- courtesy photo

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — They couldn’t be rattled. They couldn’t be denied. Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashanka of Olathe, Kansas, had worked too hard and come close too many times not to win the National Spelling Bee.

So they shared the title, making history in two different ways.

The bee hadn’t ended in a tie for 52 years — until last year. Now it’s happened for an unprecedented two years running.

And Vanya is the first sibling of a past champion to win. Her sister, Kavya, won in 2009.

Vanya’s final word was “scherenschnitte.” After being informed he’d be the co-champion if he got the next word right, Gokul didn’t even bother to ask the definition before spelling “nunatak.”

Gokul finished third last year.