Photo by Jenny Kirk William Krenz and Adyson Fischer react to Fischer spelling the winning word at the Samuel Lutheran School spelling bee on Monday. While Fischer took top honors, Krenz finished second out of 10 participants in the fifth- through eighth-grade competition.

MARSHALL — Adyson Fischer and William Krenz didn’t let a little thing like age put them at a disadvantage in the 2019 spelling bee on Monday afternoon at Samuel Lutheran School in Marshall.

Fischer won the fifth- through eighth-grade contest as a sixth-grader, while Krenz, a fifth- grader, took second place.

“I’m surprised and very shocked,” Fischer said. “I’m glad I made it.”

Fischer and Krenz went head-to-head in the championship-style round after third-place finisher Morgan Blum misspelled her word in Round 15.

“If one of you misspells the word, the other person gets a chance to spell the word correctly,” said Ryan Obry, principal and sixth- through eighth-grade teacher at Samuel Lutheran School. “If that person spells the word correctly, they get another word. If that word gets spelled correctly, them you are the school champion. If you both miss the word, then we move on to the next word.”

Krenz and Fischer both misspelled the word “majestic” in Round 16, so the slate was wiped clean and new words were given. Both successfully spelled the following words they were given until the 18th round, when Krenz gave one incorrect letter as he attempted to spell “guidance.” Fischer then correctly spelled the word as well as the winning word, which was “miniature.”

“I’m feeling happy,” Fischer said. “But miniature almost got me there. I think it helped that I helped my brother a lot and I memorized the words. I just remembered to think about the word and then whatever comes to mind is what I said.”

Obry, who served as a spelling bee judge alongside Amy MacArthur, said he thought all 10 participants did well.

“They put in their full efforts and you could tell that with the ones that knew they got it wrong and how upset they were, especially as they were spelling through it,” he said. “Being in front of your peers, it’s a little more a heart-racing type of thing.”

While the students have an equal opportunity to take part in the fifth- through eighth-grade spelling bee, the amount of practice students put in at home might vary.

“They get spelling word lists,” Obry said. “Those get sent home in late November or early December usually. In early January, we did classroom bees at all of the grade levels. Usually we take the top two, but we have a couple of classes that only have three (students), so that’s why we had some grades with three (participants) come up and do this bee.”

The younger students also get a taste of the experience.

“With grades 1-4, we do it somewhat similar on Wednesday,” Obry said. “But it’s more of a fun type spelling bee to get them ready for this.”

Fourth-place finisher Nate Noble displayed his sharp spelling skills until he was tripped up in Round 13. Sixth-grader Lily Wiese made it to Round 10 before dropping out, finishing in fifth place overall.

As the words began to increase in difficulty, nerves also seemed to escalate as three of the participants were eliminated from the contest in Round 3. But then the students appeared to settled in and gain confidence with each perfectly-spelled word. Five more rounds went by before another participant dropped out of the competition. And while some may have felt frustration or disappointment, all of the students demonstrated good sportsmanship before, during and after the contest.

Eighth-graders Landon Lanoye-Guerrero and Randi Wendorff, along with seventh-graders Alex Heil, Martin Krenz and Shelby Neyens, also took part in the 2019 spelling bee.