WASHINGTON (WANE) – A Fort Wayne student made it all the way to the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Achyut Ethiraj is in seventh grade at Maple Creek Middle School. The 13-year-old breezed through the preliminaries and quarterfinals to qualify as a semifinalist.

“I’ve been learning words from dictionaries by searching them and finding why and how they are spelled, and the way they are, and learning the language patterns and roots,” Achyut said.

His run ended Wednesday in the semifinals.

Achyut also competed in 2022 and tied for 14th place.