Superior sixth-grader Payton Milender won the Mineral County Spelling Bee on Wednesday, Feb. 22, after 14 rounds of competition. The spelling bee started with 30 participants, but one-by-one, they were knocked out of the running by trying to spell words like “crustaceans,” “hypotenuse” and “Huguenot.”

The group was whittled (w-h-i-t-t-l-e-d) down to six, Brooke Williams, Ben Lohman, Zoey Zimmerman, Bailey Calloway, Kaydence Kelsey and Payton. After a few more rounds, it was down to just three, Zimmerman, Kelsey, and Milender.

Zimmerman came close when she was the lone contestant. But then, with her final word, reveille, she had a miscue, bringing Kelsey and Milender back to the microphone for another round. This time, Zimmerman went down, Kelsey also met defeat, but Milender came back with the word “trek.” In her final round, she became the champ by spelling “waltz” for the win.

All three schools held their own spelling bees with the top four from each class sent to the county meet. Superior’s champ was Lanie Crabb with Chelsea Anderson in second place. Alberton’s was Lyssah Kromrey with Lynette Nix in second. At St. Regis, the top students in each grade won, including eighth grader Andrew Sanford, seventh grader Makaela Kelly, sixth grader Aaron Stansfield and fifth grader Tia Hendrick.

Superior Superintendent, Scott Kinney, was the emcee for the evening. It was organized by Angie Hopwood with judges Rachael Clevenger, Emily Ingham, and Chelsea Nygaard. Milender will now compete at the state meet in Billings on March 18.