Winter wins Spelling Bee

After multiple rounds of spelling, sixth grader Hayden Winter won the second annual Tri-City United Spelling Bee with the word “circulation.”

The bee started out with winners from grades five, six, seven and eight competing against each other to secure a spot in the bee’s final round.

Some of the words that took students out of the competition included guise, dismissal, pennant, and recognition.

Some of the words had homophones or could be confused with other words. Students were read a definition for these words prior to spelling it.

Words that students spelled correctly included conservatory, alabaster, buzzard and humdinger.

After 45 minutes of spelling, the bee was reduced to one student from each grade. From the fifth grade, it was Leah Tietz, sixth grade was Winter, seventh was Caitlin Schmitz, and eighth was Maddie Macedo.

Winter will now continue to compete at the Regional Spelling Bee on February 19 in North Mankato at South Central Community College. The winner there advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.