A Shawano Community Middle School student is Wisconsin’s new spelling bee champion.
Seventh-grader Karelyn Malliet beat out 47 other contenders Saturday at the Badger State Spelling Bee held in the Mitby Theatre at Madison Area Technical College. She won by correctly spelling the word “fulgent,” which means radiant or dazzingly bright.
“I don’t know why I knew it,” Malliet said.
Malliet will now advance to the 87th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee to be held May 27-29 in Washington, D.C.
When she spelled her winning word and found out it was correct, she was stunned.
“I didn’t know what to do, how to react or anything like that,” Malliet said. “I was shocked.”
Malliet has won the Shawano School District bee for the last three years and the regional spelling bee for the last two. She finished 11th at the 2013 Wisconsin spelling bee.
Craig Ferch, who coordinates the Shawano spelling bee, said the state bee differs from the local and regional bees in that the contestants received a list of 1,150 words to be used. However, additional words were used in the state bee, and Malliet’s winning word was one that contestants did not have on their lists.
“Some kids are better at memorizing than others,” Ferch said. “To me, that’s not a true spelling bee.”
Malliet said she has been using the state spelling bee lists as a guide since the fifth grade, and that while she didn’t know what words the school and district spelling bees would use each year, memorization of the tougher words was a factor in preparing for every bee.
“I still managed not to know one of the words last year,” Malliet said.
This will be Malliet’s first trip to the nation’s capital, and she will bring her parents along for the trip. She will be there for a week and will visit some of the monuments and other sights — when she’s not studying words for the bee.
“I like words. They’re fun,” Malliet said. “I tend to remember the cooler words better.”
Malliet is the first Shawano student to not only win but also qualify for the state spelling bee since Ferch revived the local bee nine years ago. Dave Stuewer won back-to-back state spelling bees in the 1980s.
“She takes this seriously,” Ferch said of Malliet. “Teachers say she spends all her spare time doing this.”
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