Snigdha Nandipati, 14, of San Diego, Calif., spells a word during the finals of the National Spelling Bee Thursday, May 31, 2012 in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon)

OXON HILL, Md. — When Snigdha Nandipati's father realized she had a special talent, he began entering her in spelling bees in the third grade.Soon she was winning them, and Thursday night the 14-year-old girl from San Diego captured the biggest prize of them all: the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
A coin collector and Sherlock Holmes fan, Snigdha aced the word "guetapens," a French-derived word that means an ambush or a trap, to outlast eight other finalists and claim the trophy along with more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.
Second place went to Stuti Mishra of West Melbourne, Fla., who misspelled "schwarmerei" &#8212 which means excessive, unbridled enthusiasm.