RIVERSIDE – In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic prevented the Riverside County Spelling Bee from being held for the first time since 1978. But, in 2021, the virtual Riverside County Spelling Bee ended when Lara Randhawa, a seventh grade student from Auburndale Intermediate School in Corona-Norco Unified School District, correctly spelled the word “lavation” in the 19th round to outlast a field of 21 spellers.In Round 18, Randhawa correctly spelled the word “interrelate” while Ben Josh Del Rio, an eighth grade student from Santa Rosa Academy in Menifee, incorrectly spelled the word “grudgingness.”“I really enjoy learning how to use the roots, definitions, and parts of speech of the different words to figure out how to spell words I’ve never heard before,” Randhawa
