Prairie River Middle School hosted the District Spelling Bee on Thursday, Feb. 7, with participants representing Jefferson Elementary School- Dawson Dengel, Rachel Berg, Cody Willis-alternate; Kate Goodrich Elementary School- Jakob Mattson, Abigail Burgener, Cassie Howard-alternate; PRMS- Armondo Garcia, Emma Jaeger, Connor Stenz, Thomas LaFreniere, Alyssa Hardrath, Jillian English-alternate, Tyler Baade, Kobe Blake, Michaila Chevalier, Dominic Davis, Bradley Draxler, Matthew Calhoun, Maria Pankow, Jacob Burbach, Mackenzie Belant, Connor Howard, Amanda Stoffel-alternate; and Washington Elementary School- Sophia Schroeder, Zowie Borelli-Curry, Madison Sturm-alternate.
The District Spelling Bee winners were: Alternate-Mackenzie Belant, 3rd place-Jacob Burbach, 2nd place-Connor Howard, and 1st place-Matthew Calhoun. Jacob, Connor and Matthew advanced to the Regional Spelling Bee, which was held at PRMS on Feb. 14.
There were 15 participants from DC Everest Middle School, Riverside Elementary, Horace Mann Middle School, John Muir Middle School, Trinity Lutheran-Wausau and Prairie River Middle School. The Regional alternate is Aiden Richardson-Horace Mann Middle School and the Regional Winner was Connor Howard-PRMS. Connor will participate in the 2013 Badger State Spelling Bee on Saturday, March 23, in Madison.