© 2026 WHRO Public Media
5200 Hampton Boulevard, Norfolk VA 23508
757.889.9400 | info@whro.org
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Congratulations to the TowneBank Spelling Bee Winners

Town E. Bear poses with WHRO President and CEO Bert Schmidt.
Courtesy of TowneBank
Town E. Bear poses with WHRO President and CEO Bert Schmidt at the 2026 TowneBank Spelling Bee.

After hours of spelling during the TowneBank Spelling Bee, we saw the first, second, and third-place winners emerge.

The winner of this competition will advance to represent the region at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. Each student who competed won their school spelling bee to qualify for this regional competition.

And the winners are...

1st-Place Returning Champion: Suhani Joshi
Hampton Roads Academy

2nd-Place: Chudi Zhou
Grafton Middle School

3rd-Place: Nathan Petzar
Tabb Middle School

Watch the recorded competition on WHRO+.

Meet all of the competitors.


WHRO is proudly owned by the 21 school divisions in the southeastern Virginia region.

Learn more about the competitions and many educational resources that WHRO Public Media provides to educators and families.