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Thirty of the best spellers from six southwest Minnesota middle schools gathered in Luverne Saturday morning for the 2023 Southwest Minnesota Spelling Bee,
A Luverne Middle School fifth-grader earned the champion speller title.
Oliver Carbonneau, 11, son of Mike and Molly Carbonneau of Luverne, spelled five words correctly in the final round, besting Allyson Muder of Edgerton in the finals.
Carbonneau spelled “strategy” to seal the champion title.
His winning strategy included staying calm and one other important mindset: “I didn’t worry about winning,” he said.
In addition to Luverne and Edgerton, four other schools, Hills-Beaver Creek, Worthington, Westbrook-Walnut Grove and Adrian, send students to the annual event.
Each school selected five students and an alternate to the spelling bee.
All 36 students started the competition with a 20-word written test.
Students who correctly spelled 14 or more words moved into the spelling finals, which were conducted verbally.
Seven students advanced from the written tests to compete against one another.
Joining Carbonneau and Muder in the finals were Elizabeth Anderson (Worthington), Talan Kremer (Worthington), Trinity Olson (H-BC), Makaylie Voss (H-BC) and Cooper Thone (Luverne).
One by one, each spelled the same five words verbally: scuba, tuxedo, vibrant, conscience and hygiene. Two students were eliminated.
The next set of words brought the spellers from five down to three. Those words included obstacle, schedule, unique, analyze and calendar.
The spell-off between Carbonneau, Muder and Kremer featured the words develop, encourage, awkward, competition, mischievous, miscellaneous, catastrophe and embarrass.
For the championship, Carbonneau spelled concentrate, familiar, demonstrate, jewelry and strategy correctly.
Second place was claimed by Muder, third place by Kremer, and Bergen Arp took first place among the six alternates at the competition.
Luverne Middle School took the team competition with the most accumulated points by its participants.
Luverne team members included Carbonneau, Cooper Thone, Mallory Edstrom, Allison Lysne, Isley Smith and Tyler Wicks (alternate.)
H-BC team members included Trinity Olson, Makaylie Voss, Penni Moore, Ryker Gehrke, Kaleb Olson and Malachi Bush (alternate).
As home to the current champion, Luverne will host the 2024 spelling bee.