 one local student will be heading to compete in Washington DC after claiming first place at today's regional spelling bee. Sarah Winkelman joins us live in our Brainerd studio with more. Sarah? Yeah Dennis, the Region 5 spelling bee today had 29 local students who had already won both their school and their district spelling bee competitions, but today it was Chloe Holloman from Royalton who took home first place. For an eighth grader who sure knows a lot of words all she could do was smile when asked about her victory. It feels good. Chloe says she spends every day practicing words with her mom and grandma who were there supporting her today. Washington bound I'm I'm I'm elated. After having no hesitation on spelling the winning word. I'm corn. I'm corn E I N K O R N I corn. She understood you know different and difficult patterns of words and how words work and how they fit together with each time stepping up to the microphone just as confident as the last. I kind of I kind of said the word like I spelled it in my head and then remembered how to spell it. Last year as part of the regional spelling bee, Chloe finished in the top 10, but this year walked away as the champion. That's really exciting and that's that's actually what I think we've been working toward is you know the the big one after beating tough competition and first runner-up as may pool from Aiken and second runner-up Nicholas Baxter of Brainerd. The kids were very prepared and we had some great participants. We had some really tricky words and so I know that it's it's it can be difficult for the kids but we had some awesome competitors. Now Chloe's mom says she plans to research some new study methods to help best prepare her daughter for the intense competition she'll face at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Dennis. Alright thank you Sarah for that live report from our Brainerd studio tonight. The National Joint Powers Alliance and Staples host to the event and will fund the trip to Washington DC for Chloe and her mom. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.