WAUNAKEE 13 YR. OLD WINS STATE SPELLING BEE
Sunday, March 27th, 2011 -- 10:43 AM
13 year old Parker Dietry of Waunakee won the 63rd Annual Badger State Spelling Bee on Saturday by spelling "jackanapes" correctly. The field of 45 middle schoolers, which included Neillsville's Kristin Apolinario and Gary Ramos from Black River Falls, was shrunk down to 8 in 3 1/2 hours and then it took only 15 minutes for Parker to be crowned the champion. 23 rounds of spelling in all were contested at the Anderson Auditiorium at Edgewood College in Madison. Rose Beach of Janesville finished second while Elise Schlecht of Sheboygan finished third. Parker, an 8th grader at Waunakee Middle School, will now represent Wisconsin at the 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. June 1-2.Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.