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'I Knew Them All': Confident Ananya Vinay Wins Spelling Bee

OXON HILL, Md. (AP/CBS) - After three years of ties, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has a single champion.

And the 12-year-old winner was so confident that she wrote her winner's speech before she even showed up for the competition.

Twelve-year-old Ananya Vinay, who's from Fresno, California, showed little emotion as she plowed through word after mystifying word in the final rounds. She outclassed her better-known competitors and survived a long duel with 14-year-old Rohan Rajeev to win the 90th Scripps bee on Thursday.

Ananya Vinay won with the word "marocain," a French word for a dress fabric made of ribbed crepe.

Though Vinay barely cracked a smile when she won, her family was very excited. At one point in the competition, you could see the nerves of her father.

Vinay will take home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.

She never looked all that impressed by the words she was given. She rarely took even half her allotted 2 minutes to spell. She says she knew them all.

As for the winner's speech, Ananya says she wrote it as motivation to study more. She'll deliver it Friday.

Two teens from the Chicagoland area also made it pretty far in the Spelling Bee. Marline Schaff from Lake Forest made it through five rounds and Mira Dedhia from Western Spring ended up finishing third.

(CBS Chicago and The Associated Press contributed to this copy. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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