Gopi and Zhang are Cass County’s Top Spellers

Cass County had 38 students from nine different schools registered in the Annual Cass County Spelling Bee on Monday afternoon. Chaitanya Gopi and Sunny Zhang were the top two finishers and will now advance to the State Spelling Bee held in Bismarck at the Bismarck Event Center on March 23, 2026.

Chaitanya Gopi, a sixth grader at Dakota Montessori School, finished in first place and Sunny Zhang, a seventh grader at Ben Franklin Middle School, took second. Emberly Wobbema, an eighth grader at Capstone Classical Academy finished third in the event.

The Cass County Spelling Bee started with a written session to determine who will square off in the final spell off. The top twelve scores from the written test advanced to the final session to determine the top two finishers to represent Cass County in the statewide contest.

Each county can send two students to compete for the state title. The champion will represent North Dakota at the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.

^{(L to R: Emberly Wobbema, Chaitanya Gopi, Sunny Zhang)}