The best of the best spellers on the west side of the Metroplex faced off Tuesday at Texas Christian University with a trip to Washington, D.C., on the line.
The winning word in round 15 was enthalpy. According to the World English Dictionary, it means "thermodynamic property of a system equal to the sum of its internal energy and the product of its pressure and volume."
Narahari Bharadwaj of Euless, who attends the Harmony Sciences Academy, said he was a little nervous on the championship word but that didn't slow him down.
"This is like a dream come true, so I'm happy," Bharadwaj said after receiving the winner's trophy.
Bharadwaj defeated last year's champion, Mark De Los Santos.
In total, 24 competitors from Fort Worth, Arlington and several other cities competed after winning their school's and district's spelling bees.
Tyler Ellis of Emma Roberson Elementary in Granbury was the youngest competitor. Tyler is only 8 years old but beat out almost half of the competition. He was very confident before the bee got under way, saying he was planning on winning it all.
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"I just like to compete in spelling bees," Tyler said. "I just like to see what the other kids are capable of doing."
The world "innocuous" ended his day, but not after spelling some very impressive words, such as "odori."
Bharadwaj said he is excited to move on the Scripps National Spelling Bee in June.
"Yeah, Washington D.C. -- it's going to be fun," Bharadwaj said.
The bee was sponsored by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the TCU College of Education.
