“Terrific” speller Hannah Peitso was the winner of the first ever Tower-Soudan Elementary spelling bee after correctly spelling the final word in the bee, which happened to be “terrific.”

The bee featured the top four spellers from fifth and sixth-grade. Peitso will now compete in the District Spelling Bee on Feb. 2. In past years the school spelling bee featured the top spellers from grade five through eight.

The bee started out with two spellers tripping over their first round words, mallet and absorb. The six remaining spellers all made it through the second round, spelling kidney, demanding, caper, journal, cabinet and posture. Two spellers fell in round three, missing talons and stellar.

Hannah, Bonnie Guenthner, James Hanek and Josh Kesler all started in round four, but fragrance and stomach put James and Josh on the bench.

In round five, Hannah correctly spelled “tissue” but Bonnie misspelled “prevail.” Hannah then needed to correctly spell Bonnie’s missed word, plus one final word, to complete the bee, which she did with a confident style.

Students participating in this year’s bee were fifth-graders Bria Chiabotti, Bonnie Guenthner, Joshua Kesler, Savannaha Murray, and sixth-graders Ethan Bergan, James Hanek, Jeffrey Mattson and Hannah Peitso.

Al Reller once again served as pronouncer. Principal Kevin Abrahamson, and school staff Cathy Anderson and Jim Carlson acted as judges.