Pictured from left are Tristen Nuest, county coordinator Susanne Siebrase, Angella Strickter and Richard Long. (Photo provided)

AKRON — Tuesday, Jan. 19, Kosciusko County Spell Bee winners from 19 schools competed for the county championship at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School.

The fifth/sixth-grade winner was Angella Stichter, Warsaw Christian School. Stichter won her grade level with the word “deglutition.”

The winner from seventh/eighth grade was Tristen Nuest, an eighth-grader from Tippecanoe Valley Middle School. Nuest won his grade level by correctly spelling “joule.”

Stichter and Nuest then competed for the overall county championship, where Nuest was victorious with his correct spelling of “serrano.”

Nuest and Stichter were each awarded a $2,500 scholarship by the Shoop Sports and Youth Foundation Inc., in honor of Richard R. Long.