By KWMU
St. Louis, MO – A boy from Chesterfield will get $2,000 for finishing fourth in the National Spelling Bee Thursday.
This is the best finish in three tries for Rajiv Terigopula, a 7th grader at Sperreng Middle School.
The 12-year old spelled 12 words right - including mucedinaceous, arytenoid, and infundibular - before he put one too many L's in the word odylic in the 14th round.
Terigopula had finished in 48th and 16th places in the past two spelling bees.
According to his biography on the Spelling Bee's website, Terigopula is the editor of Sperring's school newspaper and a member of his the Science Olympiad team.
He also plays the violin, guitar, and keyboard.