Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@shawanoleader.com
Leader Photos by Lee Pulaski Karelyn Malliet reacts as the judges flash green cards to show she correctly spelled “anthropomorphic” Wednesday during the Shawano School District spelling bee at Shawano Community Middle School. This was Malliet’s third consecutive district bee championship, and she will have the chance to win the regional spelling bee two years in a row in February.
Alex Mueller spells the word “macrocosm” in the fourth round of the spelling bee. Although he misspelled the word, the other competitors, save winner Karelyn Malliet, also misspelled their words, and he had the chance to win with the words “shiatsu” and “asylum.”
Karelyn Malliet knows how to spell “success,” not to mention a bunch of other words.
The words that earned the seventh-grade Shawano Community Middle School student her third consecutive Shawano School District spelling bee championship Wednesday were “circadian” and “anthropomorphic.” She spelled the words correctly in the fourth round, beating out 38 other competitors for the three-peat.
Malliet has traditionally prepared for the bee well in advance, but this year she decided to start her studying more than four months ago when the new school year started.
“I want to really get high up in the cycle, and maybe even make it to nationals,” Malliet said.
Malliet won the regional spelling bee for the first time in 2013, advancing to the state spelling bee in Madison. She will have the chance to make it back-to-back championships when the SCMS once again hosts the regional bee on Feb. 18.
Malliet’s road to the third district championship looked in jeopardy in the third round when she got the word “schism.” With all of her practicing and learning, that word threw her for a moment, and she sounded hesitant as she spelled it.
“This year, I found a word that actually I didn’t know,” she said.
Craig Ferch, a psychologist with the district who has coordinated the bee for nine years, admitted he was worried at first when the word came up and she didn’t immediately start spelling.
“I thought you were going to lose it on ‘schism,’” Ferch told Malliet after the bee. “I liked how you paused and took a second or two to compose yourself before spelling it.”
To prepare for this year’s regional bee, Malliet plans to focus on word patterns rather than just memorizing words.
“Last year, I just focused more on the words,” Malliet said.
The second- and third-place winners had an easier time once Malliet spelled her final words. Alex Mueller took second after correctly spelling “shiatsu” and “asylum.” Cameron Watters finished third when he misspelled “stridency.”
Ferch said the district created an emergency list of words two years ago when the bee got down to four or five competitors who misspelled the available words. The regular list had words like “gravitational” and “imperturbable.”
Even the easier words tended to give students difficulty this year.
“By round four, we started with 39 … we were down to four,” Ferch said. “I was kind of surprised with this.”
The top three winners received trophies, and Malliet and Mueller each will receive a free one-year subscription to the online Encyclopedia Brittanica.