NH champ reaches spelling bee semis

New Hampshire’s champion speller made it through Round 3 of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday and will compete in the semifinals today.

Avvinash Radakrishnan, 13, of Nashua, correctly spelled thremmatology, a noun referring to the breeding of domestic plants and animals, to pass the third round. He correctly spelled linoleum in the second round, according to the bee’s Web site.

This is the second year in a row, and the third in four years, that Avvinash won the state title and competed in the national contest being held in Washington, D.C., and televised on ESPN and ABC.

Avvinash, who attends the Academy for Science and Design, a charter school in Merrimack, also competed in 2006 when he represented Massachusetts. He says he’s not even the top speller in his house, adding his sister, Anjithaa, 12, is better

Anjithaa and Avvinash placed first and second, respectively, at the regional competition in March. Later that month, Avvinash won the New Hampshire Spelling Bee in Bedford, and she placed eighth.

Last year at the national bee, Avvinash finished 61 out of 275 contestants. His goal this year is to finish in the top 15.

He attended Nashua Catholic Regional Junior High School last year but transferred to the school in Merrimack at the beginning of the school year.

– JOSEPH G. COTE

>>Watch the bee<< The semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee are being broadcast on ESPN today at 10 a.m. The finals will be shown on ABC tonight at 8, according to the spelling bee’s Web site.