Fifth-grader from St. John Vianney of Fairmont earns trip to national contest
A pair of area spellers competed in the South Central Service Cooperative’s Spelling Bee on Tuesday evening, February 17, in the Conference Center on the campus of South Central College in North Mankato.
The two, both eighth-graders in their final year of eligibility, were Maurissa Isaacs, a three-peat champ from Mountain Lake Public High School (MLHS), winning the local bee in sixth-grade, seventh-grade and eighth-grade, as well as Benjamin Rodriguez, representing Butterfield-Odin Public High School (B-OHS)
Isaacs advanced to the fifth-round, finishing ninth out of the 40 contestants. As a sixth-grader, Isaacs was regional runner-up and last year was fourth, competing through seven rounds.
Winning this year’s bee was Brianna Joseph, a fifth-grader from St. John Vianney in Fairmont. Brianna correctly spelled “angstrom,” a metric unit length equal to one ten billionth of a meter or a noun used to specify wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. She advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee set for May 24-29 in Washington, D.C. Brianna is the daughter of Dr. Abraham and Simmi Joseph, and continues the family tradition of championship spellers. Her older brother, Tony, a 10th-grader at Fairmont Junior-Senior Public High School, earned three trips to the national competition.
Second place went to Alex Hillesheim of Sleepy Eye and third place featured a tie between Shane Matters and Savanna Flugum of Mankato.
The spellers hailed from both regional public and private schools. All had previously won their respective school’s bee.
The South Central Service Cooperative sponsors the Regional Spelling Bee for the South Central Region of Minnesota. Counties covered by this event, in addition to Cottonwood and Watonwan, include Blue Earth, Brown, Faribault, Le Sueur, Martin, Nicollet, Sibley and Waseca.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee competition is open to winners of sponsored Regional Spelling Bees in the United States – including territories such as Guam, American Samoa and the United States Virgin Islands – along with overseas military bases in Germany and South Korea. It is also open to to contestants from Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, New Zealand, Ghana and the Bahamas. Participants from these countries must also be regional spelling bee winners.
Since 1994, ESPN has televised the later rounds of the National Bee during evening broadcasts, and since 2006, earlier rounds have aired on the cable channel during the day. The Championship Finals are broadcast in prime time on ABC.
In addition to improving students’ spelling skills and increasing their vocabulary, Spelling Bee participation provides valuable experience in developing poise – a necessary skill for success in public speaking, performing arts and athletics.
