Home » News » Around Waupaca County » Ozminkowski wins NL spelling bee

Ozminkowski wins NL spelling bee

Nass, Noto also advance to regional contest

By Scott Bellile


Eighth-grader Alina Ozminkowski showed her English savviness is far from “vague” by winning the School District of New London district spelling bee on Thursday, Jan. 21.

Ozminkowski won on the word “vague” in the 14th round, after correctly spelling “jargon” in the 13th round.

“I’m so excited and I almost cried,” Ozminkowski said following her victory.

She and New London runners-up Tayler Nass and Mackenzie Noto, both sixth-graders, will advance to the regional spelling bee at Lawrence University on Feb. 9. The champion there will advance to the Badger State Spelling Bee in Madison on March 18. Wisconsin’s top speller will take a seat in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in late spring.

This will be Ozminkowski’s second trip to the regional spelling bee. She placed second at New London’s spelling bee in sixth grade and placed 18th at the regional.

Ozminkowski’s favorite subject in school is language arts, and she’s active in forensics.

“I write and read a lot,” she said.

District Administrator Kathy Gwidt said the spelling bee environment celebrates academic achievement and benefits participants in ways similar to athletics, music and the arts.

“Competitions such as this provide opportunity for children to learn about the value of giving their best effort and to practice good sportsmanship,” Gwidt said. “Our hope is that participants of any competition walk away and simply say they had a great time.”

The other New London district spelling bee participants were: Sydney Abhold, Ashleigh Bruette, David Castellano, Leila Delrow, Avalon FischerBuchli, Phoenix Francois, Jacob Hidde, Logan Horn, Brett Krause, Cheyanne Kuether, Raigan Lindholm, Amelia Mares, Courtney Meyer, Myles O’Brien, Olivia Philippon, Hannah Plamann, Blake Polanco, Peyton Rew, Kaden Reybrock, Carter Schendel, Glen Wallander, Carolyn Woodfin and Blaike Zwiers.

Scroll to Top