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Snigdha Nandipati holds the trophy after winning the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night.

WASHINGTON – New York’s reigning wordsmith again came achingly close to a title at the Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday, notching a third-place place finish for the second straight year.
Arvind Mahankali of Bayside Hills, Queens, who was sponsored by the Daily News, sailed through his third national bee until well into Thursday night’s finals - aired live on ESPN - when pronouncer Jacques Bailly hit him with "schwannoma," a tumor of the sheath of the peripharal nerve.
Mahankali, 12, asked twice for extra time – an impossible request at the bee and a sign something was amiss.
The seventh-grader at Junior High School 74/Nathaniel Hawthorne offered “schvonoma,” but heard the dreaded desk bell signaling elimination.
The crowd responded with an extended standing ovation.
Moments later, Mahankali applauded stoically from a seat in the front row as 14-year-old Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego hoisted the first-place trophy for nailing the word “guetapens,” a French derivative meaning “ambush.”
“That was a hard word,” Mahankali said of his draw, which he said he’d never heard before. “I studied, so it can’t be helped, but there’s always next year. I’ll study, and I’ll be back.”
“I am happy that I am probably making New York happy,” he added. “New York's happiness is my happiness.”
Mahankali was comforted by his precocious 8-year-old brother Srinath, the pair flanked by dad Srinivas and mom Bhavani.
The parents glowed.
“We’re very proud,” dad Srinivas Mahankali said. “He’s consistent. Last time he came in third, this time he came in third. It’s a remarkable achievement.”
The speller’s little brother, who quizzes Arvind when mom and dad aren’t available, seemed to take it the hardest.
“I want him to go back next year so he can win,” the little brother said.
Nandipati netted a $30,000 first-place prize plus $5,000 in scholarship funds and a $2,500 savings bond – all of which she said she’d save for college.
The champ revealed that she studies a whopping six hours a day on weekdays and 10 on the weekends.
Mahankali takes home $7,500, which his mom said he would also save for college.
Runner-up Stuti Mishra, 14, of West Melbourne, Fla., who faltered on “schwarmerei,” a German derivative meaning “excessive or unwholesome sentiment,” got a $12,500 prize.
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