TRIPLE CROWN: Citra Benhar Wins Banning Spelling Bee 3 Years in a Row

Citra Benhar, a 7th-grader at Nicolet Middle, won the Banning Unified School District Spelling Bee last week for the third year in a row, her parents and school district officials said Wednesday.

Citra is 11 and she won the Banning district spelling bee in 2012 and 2011 when she was a student at Coombs Intermediate.

This year's bee was Tuesday Jan. 22. Each year the bee is open to competitors from 4th-graders to 8th-graders from all Banning Unified schools.

"It was down to three of us and I was the only one who spelled the word correctly," Citra said Wednesday. "And then I had to spell another word to win. It was 'curriculum.'"

Citra's sister Bridget won the Banning spelling bee five times in a row.

"I skipped fourth grade so I won't be able to win five times," Citra said.

Citra's parents, Diana and Suttichai Benhar, are from Indonesia. They have been in Banning 11 years and they own Super Subs on North San Gorgonio Avenue across from the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. Suttichai is a U.S. Air Force veteran.

"I told my wife, life is very good, these young people make our lives easier," Suttichai told Banning-Beaumont Patch in a phone interview Wednesday.

"We are very proud of Citra of course," Suttichai said. "She didn't want us to take her to celebrate. She is very humble with the economy the way it is. She said 'Dad you don't have to take me anywhere.' But we took her to McDonalds for some fries. She was surprised."

Citra is the youngest of four sisters. Bridget, 19, is an E4 senior airman in the Air Force Reserves and she attends UC San Diego, where she studies bioengineering. Valora, 21, studies biology at UC Irvine, and Chanda, 23 is an E4 senior airman in the Air Force, active duty.

As winner of the Banning Unified School District Spelling Bee, Citra has qualified to compete in the Riverside County Spelling Bee in March.

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