Prairie River Middle School held the District Spelling Bee on Tuesday, Jan. 31. Thirty-one contestants were represented from seven schools. Jefferson: Ally Hoock & Erik Mann; Kate Goodrich: Sebastian Ollmann & Joshua Watzka; Maple Grove Charter School: Madelyn Mootz and Mackenzie Ellenbecker; PRMS: Ryder Depies, Olivia Troyer, Lily Grefe, Cameron Ross, Midori Paulus, Benjamin Freyer, Jack DeJong, Jack Hoock, Caitlyn Geiss, David Golisch, Henry Reimann, Emily Taggart, Courtney Wolfe, Rachel Travis, Elena Woller; St. John Lutheran School: Emily Wiesneski, Hailey Nowack, Sam Bennett, Jacob Zelinski; Trinity Lutheran School: Avery Hoff, Jaden Bush, Croix Woller, Ivan Hein; Washington: Dylan Smith and Cadence Ryman.
All contestants competed in a 25-word written test and the top 10 were seeded in the spell off. The top 10 were: Ben Freyer, Jack Hoock, David Golisch, Jacob Zelinski, Elena Woller, Mackenzie Ellenbecker, Caitlyn Geiss, Courtney Wolfe, Sam Bennett and Lily Grefe.
Top three spellers were: Jack Hoock – 1st place, David Golisch – 2nd place, and Ben Freyer – third place. Elena Woller, alternate, took fourth place. The top three spellers advance to the Regional competition which will be held at John Muir Middle School’s auditorium on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 12:30 p.m.