The bleary-eyed champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee are enjoying the fruits of their historic victory.
The wild and unprecedented climax of Thursday night’s competition stretched into the night, when contest officials ran out of words.
For the first time in the competition's 92-year-long history, eight kids were named co-champions. Never had more than two people been crowned co-champs.
"Champion spellers, we are now in uncharted territory," Bee pronouncer Jacques Bailly said before the competition ended. "We do have plenty of words remaining on our list. But we will soon run out of words that will possibly challenge you, the most phenomenal collection of super spellers in the history of this competition."
The eight winners, Erin Howard, Rishik Gandhasri, Abhijay Kodali, Shruthika Padhy, Rohan Raja, Saketh Sundar, Sohum Sukhatankar and Christopher Serrao, spelled the final 47 words correctly.
The winners range in age from 12 to 14 and hail from all over the country, including Alabama, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, Maryland and Texas.
The winners even came up with a clever nickname, dubbing themselves the “octo-champs.”
Each winner took home a $50,000 cash prize.
More than 560 students took place in this year’s competition. The final day of the three-day event started at 9:30 a.m. and didn’t wrap up until after midnight.
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