Onalaska student wins regional spelling bee, held on-line for another year

For the second consecutive year, a regional spelling bee for the La Crosse area was conducted online instead of in-person.

And for the second consecutive year, a speller from Onalaska Middle School outlasted other contestants from the area to win the CESA-4 bee.

This year’s local winner was Gowri Prakash, who will be one of five finishers in the CESA-4 bee to move on to the state finals.

Prakash correctly spelled “fontina” to win the regional bee. Fontina is an Italian cheese.

The other four local finalists headed to the state bee are:

• Maria Gonzalez of Melrose-Mindoro
• Maisie McKinney of Coulee Christian School
• Harmanpreet Virk of Holmen Middle School
• Lewis Go of Aquinas Middle School

The top finishers at the state bee will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington this summer.

Twenty-four spellers took part in Thursday’s regional bee from classrooms and other sites, while bee officials were based at the CESA office in West Salem.

Snigdha Rajamanuri of Onalaska Middle was the regional bee champion in 2021.

The 2020 regional bee was the last one held in person at the CESA headquarters before the start of the pandemic. Plans are for the state finals on March 26th to be conducted in-person, tentatively at Madison College.