Although he said the word “golem” stumped him, Rugby seventh grader Easton Geiszler triumphed over a list of challenging terms to win the Pierce County Spelling Bee Wednesday, Feb. 15.

Geiszler will join eighth grader Ella Walker March 20 at the Bismarck Events Center for the North Dakota State Spelling Bee.

When asked how he felt about competing at state, Geiszler answered, “Scared.”

Geiszler said he studied a list of words for the Pierce County contest.

He said he hoped he would be able to handle tough ones like golem, which the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as “an artificial human being in Hebrew folklore endowed with life.”

Walker, the contest’s runner-up, is an eighth grader who competed in the spelling bee last year, also finishing as runner-up. She said her most challenging word was “gaffe,” another word for a mistake.

“I’m a little nervous, I guess,” she said about her trip to state.

How did she plan to study for the contest?

“I’ll probably just look over some state contest or even the national contest words to see what words they have to kind of refresh myself, and that’s probably it,” she said.

Walker said a trip to the Scripps National Spelling be “would be fun, but I don’t think the runner-ups get to go.”

Spelling Bee organizer Kari Geisinger said, “This year’s contest wasn’t as exciting as last year’s.”

The 2022 Pierce County Spelling Bee saw eighth grader Carter Teigen win after four tiebreaker rounds. He spelled the word “malapropism” correctly to clinch the first place title.

Students in third through sixth grade at Ely and Little Flower Elementary Schools also participated in a spelling bee Feb. 15 at Ely Elementary School.

Contest announcer Alyssa Joppru said students participating in the elementary school contest wouldn’t move on to state competition, but each grade’s winner would receive a trophy.

Winning the sixth grade contest for spelling words such as “bereft” and “admonish” correctly was Pius Wangler.

Bella Grove won the fifth grade contest for spelling the highest number of words from a list that included “republic” correctly.

Also winning the Pierce County Spelling Bee at Ely Elementary School were fourth grader Harper Seykora and third grader Kaylen Williams.