Former Local Spelling Champ Heading Back To National Bee

Last year's champion of the Midwest Spelling Bee is heading back to nationals.

Antonio Lansang and his family moved to Brookings, S.D. after the completion his 2012-13 school year at Neligh-Oakdale, but his spelling success followed him.

Lansang recently won the Sioux Falls Regional Scripps Spelling Bee, outlasting eighth grader Adele Benoit of Yankton and his sister, Angela Lansang, a sixth grader from George S. Mickelson Middle School, after 30 rounds of the oral competition. An eighth grade student at George S. Mickelson Middle School, he went on to compete in the University of South Dakota Scripps Spelling Bee in Vermillion last weekend.
 
With the correct spelling of “reprehensible,” Lansang won the USD contest, advancing to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 25-30, where he will compete against Nebraska's 2014 qualifier, Grace Johanningsmeier of Westside Middle School in Omaha. In addition to transportation and accommodations for himself and one parent to participate in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., he received a Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, donated by Merriam-Webster. His parents are Zoilo and Agnes Lansang of Brookings.

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