Two Local Spellers Advance to State Spelling Bee

SARTELL -- Two local students are moving on to the State Spelling Bee later this month.

St. John's Prep 7th grader Ben St. Hilaire won the morning session in Wednesday's Central Minnesota Regional Spelling Bee at Resource Training and Solutions in Sartell.

He defeated second place finisher, St. Cloud 6th grader Julian Baker, who will also move on to state.

In the afternoon session, it was 7th grade home-schooler Eliana Szabo and 7th grader Anthony Bergeron from Pine City Public Schools who took first and second place.

A total of 44 students from around central Minnesota competed in the Regional Spelling Bee.

St. Hilaire, Baker, Szabo and Bergeron will move on to the Multi-Regional State Spelling Bee on February 18th in Fergus Falls.

The winner of that competition will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. in May.