by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
A Sauk Rapids Middle School eighth-grader, Morgan Paulson, was one of two top winners of the Regional Spelling Bee Feb. 11 at Resource Training and Solutions in Sartell.
Paulson finished in second-place in the morning session of the spelling bee; John Byun, an eighth-grader from St. Cloud, took first place in the morning session. He won by spelling the word ravioli correctly.
The event involved students in grades 5-8 from schools throughout central Minnesota.
The two first-place and two second-place winners of the Regional Spelling Bee will represent Central Minnesota schools at the Multi-Region State Spelling Bee Feb. 22 in Fergus Falls.
It took the spellings and misspellings of 320 words before the winners could be determined. There were 46 contestants, 23 in a morning session, 23 in an afternoon session.
In the afternoon bee, the first-place winner was Nicholas Little, a seventh-grader from Dassel-Cokato; and second-place Olivia Sorenson, an eighth-grader form St. Michael–Albertville Schools. There was breathless suspense in the afternoon session as Little and Sorenson competed in a full six rounds before Sorenson misspelled a word, and then Little needed to spell two words correctly to be declared first-place winner. The word that cinched his win was kohlrabi.
The Sauk Rapids winner, Paulson, was one of three Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School students who took part in the Regional Spelling Bee. The other two were eighth-grader Madeline Bittman and seventh-grader Braedyn Leeb.
Paulson and the others were accompanied to the regional event by Morgan Olson, who teaches fifth-grade and eighth-grade science at Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School. Olson was in charge of organizing the spelling-bee event at the middle school this year when Paulson took first place.
Coincidentally, Olson and Paulson share the same first name – Morgan. What’s more, Olson competed in the Minnesota State Spelling Bee when he was an Alexandria eighth-grader 20 years ago.
“I was 13 or 14 at the time,” he told the Sauk Rapids-Rice Newsleader. “There was a lot of pressure standing up there in front of that microphone. I think I took eighth place, and the word I misspelled, if I remember, is picayune.”
Paulson, Olson said, is a superb student.
“She is super-focused and pays such close attention to detail,” he added. “She takes her time and puts a lot of time into her assignments. I printed out a list of words for her when she was studying for the bee. She used a color-coded system with highlighters to mark the words she was sure of and those she wasn’t so sure of. In all she does, Morgan always pays attention to the process.”
Tensions run high every year at the Regional Spelling Bee, according to Sandra Cordie of Resource Training and Solutions, who has coordinated the event for many years.
“There are usually a few tears and nervous chatter before the bee begins,” Cordie said. “My officials do a marvelous job of talking to the students and trying to make them comfortable with the microphone and the format of the bee.”
The winner of the State Spelling Bee in Fergus Falls will go to the 86th annual National Spelling Bee May 22-28 in Washington, D.C.
Words presented for spelling at the National Bee are anything but easy. Here is a list of the winning words from the past 15 years: 2000 demarche; 2001 succedaneum; 2002 prospicience; 2003 pococurante; 2004 autochthonous; 2005 appoggiatura; 2006 ursprache; 2007 serrefine; 2008 guerdon; 2009 laodicean; 2010 stromuhr; 2011 cymotrichous; 2012 guetapens; 2013 knaidel; 2014 feuilleton/stichomythia; 2015 scherenschenitte/nunatak.
Morgan Paulson of Sauk Rapids (left) and John Byun of St. Cloud are two of the four top winners in the Regional Spelling Bee held recently in Sartell. Byun won first place; Paulson won second in the morning competitive session. They and the other two winners from the afternoon session will compete at state competition Feb. 22 in Fergus Falls. The winner of that competition will go to the National Spelling Been in May in Washington, D.C.
