Photo courtesy of Gwen Sturrock Alex Sturrock spells the winning word, “Chihuahua,” at the Regional Spelling Bee held in Redwood Falls this week.

MARSHALL — The path to the spelldown starts with school spelling bees, written tests and oral rounds. But it always ends with a single word.

This year, it was “Chihuahua,” Alex Sturrock said.

Sturrock said he had gotten some long words at Tuesday’s Regional Spelling Bee. But, he said, “Chihuahua was probably the hardest one to remember. I couldn’t remember if there was another ‘h-u-a’ at the end, or ‘u-a.'”

But Sturrock got the correct spelling, and won first place at the regional bee.

The Southwest West Central Service Cooperative held the Regional Spelling Bee on Tuesday at the Redwood Area Community Center in Redwood Falls. A total of 27 students from 22 school districts competed for the chance to advance to the multi-region spelling bee later this month. Students from Marshall did very well in the competition, with Sturrock, a student at True Light Christian School, in first place and Marshall Middle School students Roman Gaul and Charles Mueller-Thompson placing third and fifth.

The top four finishers in the regional bee will advance to the Multi-Region State Spelling Bee in Fergus Falls, with the fifth-place finisher as an alternate.

“It always impresses me how well these students are spelling at this age,” said SWWC Student Enrichment Coordinator Andrea Anderson. “They all do such an amazing job.”

Students who competed in the regional bee said it was a good experience, even if they felt the pressure of spelling a word in front of an audience.

“At least the first time was a little bit nerve-wracking,” Sturrock said. He said it helped that there was a piece of paper and a pen at the podium for students to try and write words out first.

Roman Gaul said writing words out was part of the strategy he used to study before Tuesday’s spelling bee.

“I have this method where I see the word and I write it as many times as it takes to get the word down in my head,” Gaul said. “Or, I would play video games, and when I would die, I’d write the words down.”

Tuesday’s competition had two rounds before top spellers battled it out in a “spelldown.”

“There was a written round first, and then there was an oral round where we all spelled three words,” Sturrock said.

He said he liked the written round best because he was better at written spelling.

The spelldown part of the competition went for 14 rounds on Tuesday. After the competitors had been narrowed down to two, Sturrock went a few more rounds against Lac qui Parle Valley student Charlie Hanson before spelling his championship word.

Gaul said it was the word “divestiture” that tripped him up in the end. “My nerves got to me and I didn’t say the ‘e,’ ” he said. Although that was disappointing, Gaul said being part of the bee was “really cool.”

He was excited for the chance to advance to the multi-regional bee.