A Lake Road student won the third grade battle for Butler County, bringing back the spelling championship trophy to the lower elementary school for the first time since 2019.
Tony Webb Jr. was named the 14th annual Butler County Community Resource Council spelling bee champion live Tuesday, Feb. 24, on SAM 96.7 FM at Fox Radio Network, spelling the contraction ‘you’re’ correctly. He faced off against finalist Cohen Wilkerson of Oak Grove, after each student returned to competition following a misspelling.
“Today we have the top spellers of each participating third grade elementary school competing for the spot of top speller in Butler County,” said pronouncer Brenda Allen on behalf of the CRC Educational Enhancement Committee. A retired educator of Poplar Bluff Schools, Allen reminisced about having the winner’s father, Tony Webb Sr., as a student in her music class.
Other competitors who made it through 70 championship words before the first elimination occurred were Felicity Wilson of O’Neal, Rylan Ramirez of Eugene Field and Emma Cannaday of Neelyville. The R-I challengers advanced through three qualifying rounds earlier in the month, beginning with 340 students.
For the upper elementary spelling contest at Lake Road, 10 classroom finalists were narrowed down to two within the initial rounds on Wednesday, Feb. 11, in the gymnasium. Sixth grader Paisley Hill ultimately defeated Ernie Kon by spelling the word s-o-l-e-m-n-l-y after both were brought back into the spell-off multiple times.
“We had seven final rounds where each one of them would miss a word and then our possible winner would miss the championship words, so both had to come back seven times,” explained moderator Pam Heaton, Lake Road library media specialist. “It was pretty intense for a while…”
At the Middle School, Cohen’s older sister Clara Wilkerson of the fifth grade triumphed over sixth grader Harper Olivas-Zuniga in the 10th championship round with the word t-r-a-u-m-a-t-i-c on Thursday, Feb. 19, at Kay Porter Theater.
Clara shared that her key to success was breaking words down to their roots, sometimes using mnemonic devices, with support from her mother Carey Wilkerson, a reading teacher at Oak Grove. Clara also happened to be the CRC spelling bee champion in 2024, as a third grader.
Representing the fourth grade in the spelling bee was Harrison Holifield, who declared he would be practicing to make a stronger showing next year. To advance to the final round, the students won a grade-level competition against the top speller in each Middle School homeroom.
Meanwhile at Junior High, Lacey Coffer emerged victorious over seventh grade schoolmate Owen Allbritton in the 12th round, spelling the 67th word c-a-n-n-e-l-l-o-n-i without a hitch on Friday, Feb 20, in the library, reported moderator Lybby Mannon, library media specialist. As a Middle School student last year, Owen went on to place third regionally in the Southeast Missouri Spelling Bee at Three Rivers College.
In order to qualify for the Junior High championship, each house team held a spelling bee with its English teacher. The top three spellers advanced to the finals. "I think it's a fantastic opportunity and gives our students who excel academically the chance to spotlight their skills and all their hard work in a fun, competitive way," Mannon said.
Clara, Lacey and Paisley alongside alternates Ernie, Harper and Owen are slated to vie in the 17th annual SEMO Spelling Bee at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 21, in the Tinnin Fine Arts Center. The regional winner will be invited to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May in Washington, D.C.
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Cutline: Runner-up Cohen Wilkerson (right) congratulates spelling champion Tony Webb on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at Fox Radio Network.