It was Gunturi's fourth trip to the bee, improving his performance every year.
Second place went to 14-year-old homeschooled student Evelyn Blacklock of Tuxedo Park, New York, who misspelled gnathonic.
JJ Goldstein, age 13 of Great Neck, New York, fell when misspelling betony.
The field included 167 which attended public schools, and 19 with a sibling with prior bee experience.
The next year the written test, first introduced the prior year, was given before the oral round because spellers had reported being too anxious to do a written test after the opening oral round.