Brookings 8th grader wins USD South Dakota Scripps Spelling Bee
Lansang, who qualified after participating in the Sioux Falls Regional Scripps Spelling Bee earlier this winter, outlasted eighth grader Adele Benoit of Yankton and his sister, Angela Lansang, a sixth grader from George S. Mickelson Middle School, after 30 rounds of the oral competition. His parents are Zoilo and Agnes Lansang of Brookings.
Benoit, from Sacred Heart Middle School, was the runner-up and Angela Lansang finished in third place. Antonio Lansang, also a George S. Mickelson Middle Schooler, advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 25-30. In addition to transportation and accommodations for himself and one parent to participate in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., he received a Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, donated by Merriam-Webster. Fifteen students from five South Dakota regions (Rapid City, Mitchell, Sioux Falls, Vermillion and Castlewood) participated in the state spelling bee, including
Antonio Lansang also finished first in the written test of the South Dakota State Spelling Bee, which was at Farber Hall inside Old Main on the USD campus. Kevin Baltzer, an eighth grade student at Huron Middle School, was second in the written competition while Benoit was third. Additional participants included Nana Addo of Dakota Dunes (Dakota Valley Middle School), Carolyn Blaha of Dante (Wagner Community School), Gabe Fendrich of Sioux Falls (Edison Middle School), Jordan Holthe of Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls Christian), Kadarkara Harshavardhan of Vermillion (Jolley Elementary School), Veronica Knippling of Gann Valley (Highmore-Harrold Elementary), Noah Krull of Sturgis (Sturgis Elementary), Marilyn Larsen of Rosholt (Rosholt School), Ryan Light of Sturgis (Sturgis Elementary), Jace Oesterling of Custer (South Dakota Christian Home Education of Rapid City) and Lana Tintor of Sioux Falls (Whittier Middle School). A photo of Lansang is available for download at www.usd.edu/press/news/images/releases/Antonio_Lansang.jpg.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is administered on a not-for-profit basis by the E.W. Scripps Company and local spelling bee sponsors in the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe; also, the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The competition is open for students in first grade through the eighth grade.