FORT WAYNE - Kosciusko County's spelling bee champion was the runner-up Saturday at the Journal Gazette's 56th Annual Spelling Bee.
Elizabeth Shepherd, an eighth-grader from Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, finished second. She misspelled "gibbous" to place as runner-up.
Shepherd won the Kosciusko County Spelling Bee in February to advance to the regional competition in Fort Wayne.Alexia Zawadzke, an eighth-grader from St. John Lutheran School in Noble County, won the regional spelling bee with the word "delphinium". The spelling bee was presented by Touchstone Energy and Grace College.
Zawadzke, 13, will represent northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio in the 83rd Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 31 to June 6. In addition to her trip to compete in the national competition, she also receives a Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition, The Samuel Louis Sugarman Award ($100 U.S. Savings Bond), a one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online and $500.
