
Maple Lake eighth grader Riley Ellingson won the District Spelling Bee title last week in a dramatic 10-round finale.
Ellingson spelled “pragmatic” correctly to claim the honor and will advance to the Regional Spelling Bee on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at the Atwood Ballroom at St. Cloud State University. From there he has a shot at advancing to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland Memorial weekend.
Ellingson has come close to the title before. In the sixth grade he made it through several rounds to finish third. On Wednesday, Jan. 17, he out-spelled 17 schoolmates in grades fifth through eighth. Only one speller can go on, but the runner-up serves as alternate in case the winner cannot participate. This year’s second place award went to sixth grader Gavin Anderson.
Students are chosen for the bee based on preliminary spelling tests where roughly the top 20 scores advance.
Ellingson was among the top spellers in the school on stage at the Maple Lake High School auditorium where they attempted to spell words like “candidacy” and “boat” in front of an audience of peers and parents.
Ellingson has always been a good speller, but the word “candidacy” was challenging, he said, in fact it was the hardest word he was asked to spell that afternoon; “boat” he said was the easiest. After spelling 10 words correctly, Ellingson was presented with his final word, “pragmatic” which gave him little trouble.