By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Madison Rhodes, a sixth-grade student, defended her title as top speller at Isabella High School by winning the school’s spelling bee for the second year in a row on Jan. 24.

Her championship word was malign.

In preparation for the bee, Rhodes studied with her mom. Rhodes said she will use this same strategy to prepare for the next level of competition.

Rhodes will go on to compete at the county level on Feb. 2.

She said she enjoyed “being able to get on stage in front of so many people.”

Spellers were on stage in front of a large audience, mostly comprised of fourth through eighth grade students. However, several high school students were present as well.

Kenna Tuttle, a sixth-grade student, was the runner-up. Tuttle had finished in third place last year and said she was happy to have made it farther this year.

This year she changed her study method, using a method she found on Pinterest. Tuttle said she used different colored pens to write out the words on different colored sticky notes. According to a post on the site, this helps with memorization.

The starting word was hen. Some words that tripped students up along the way included: spinster, cheddar, hutch, cosmic, impact, crooked, segregation, callous and truculently.

Eighteen students participated. Christie Mims said this year had more participants than the past three years. The opportunity is available to fourth to eighth grade students. Mims said she holds a few practices to help students decide if this is something they really want to do.