This year’s Met Gala co-chairs include

in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee.“The chances of getting that high are infinitesimally small, and the chances of doing it again are an order of magnitude smaller, obviously,” Vikram said Wednesday. “So it’s a really daunting feeling as well because you always try to outdo yourself from the previous year.”

Don’t tell Faizan Zaki those odds.in a “spell-off” tiebreaker last year, was the only speller to earn a perfect score on the written spelling and vocabulary test that determined this year’s quarterfinalists. Then he breezed through seven rounds on Wednesday to becomewho will compete in Thursday night’s finals for a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.

And he’s done it all with insouciant flair, sauntering to the microphone in a black hoodie, shaggy hair in his face. Once he’s sure of the word, he takes his hands out of his sweatshirt pouch and matter-of-factly says each letter while he mimics typing in the air.The 13-year-old seventh-grader from Allen, Texas, finally showed a bit of vulnerability on “coterell,” the word that got him to the finals, and he celebrated with a big fist pump after racing through its eight letters.

“It was just very relieving. I have a lot of expectations put on me, so I’m just excited that I’m going to the finals again,” Faizan said.

No matter how often he flexes his knowledge of roots and unfamiliar language patterns, historical trends suggest Faizan is an underdog. In 96 bees over 100 years, only four runners-up have later gone on to win, and just one did so in the last 44 years: Sean Conley, the 2001 champion who finished second the year before.Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, speaks to reporters after Ash Wednesday Mass at Saint Matthew the Apostle Cathedral in Washington, March, 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, speaks to reporters after Ash Wednesday Mass at Saint Matthew the Apostle Cathedral in Washington, March, 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)to lead the Archdiocese of Washington in 2019 and made him the first Black cardinal from the U.S. in 2020. Gregory, 77, retired this year from leading the prominent archdiocese, which he shepherded through significant turmoil. Its two previous leaders,

, were implicated in a new wave of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Gregory has supported social justice and solidarity with immigrants. He drew notice for his relatively inclusive approach for LGBTQ+ Catholics. He toldin January: “I apologize for my own lack of courage to bring healing and hope, and I ask forgiveness.” Gregory was born in Chicago and ordained there in 1973, serving as auxiliary bishop beginning in 1983. After 11 years as bishop in Belleville, Illinois, he was appointed in 2004 by John Paul II to be archbishop of Atlanta.