The two were each tripped up in rounds 11 and 12 when both misspelled words. But in the 14th round, Emmett missed the word "hypocritical" while Landon correctly spelled “traumatic.” Landon then went on to correctly spell “solemnly” to clinch the title.
Twenty-five middle school classroom spelling bee champions or runner ups started out in Tuesday morning’s schoolwide spelling bee championship. It was a tough first round knocking out 12 students. Another four left in the second round and three more in the third round.
By the sixth round the field was whittled down to just Emmett and Landon. They both continued to spell correctly until the 11th and 12 rounds when they both missed their words and continued the contest until the 14th round.
Landon and Emmett will both represent the middle school in the regional spelling bee in 2026.
Students competing in this year’s school-wide bee were Annie Hansen, Blake Norris, Richie McCarty, Alex Stellema, Ulises Aguilar Arvisu, Alivia Williams, Makinlee Belson, Leah Zahl, Auden Vera, Journey Bice, Aviana VanRavensway, Sawyer Teachout, Caleb Daniel, Levi Hiemstra, Luke Riley, Hendrix VanDuser, Atreyu Hawkins, Emmett Handley, Landon Lambitz, Isaiah Tiemeyer, Anthony Marin, Rain Ritzema, Austin Quint, Steven Jones, Noah Casteel.