In The Win Column

"My name is Eddie, I'm in eighth grade, and I am under a lot of pressure."

Eddie Duran spoke those words shortly before he correctly spelled the winning word, "columns," in the 2022 Kimball Public Schools spelling bee.

"I spelled it, got it correct and I won," he said.

Fourth grader Ben Anderson captured second place.

Eddie said when he signed up for the spelling bee, "I had no intention of winning."

But win he did – and he received a chocolate bar and a trophy.

"It was my ever first trophy," he said, and he jokingly told a friend that he was "going to clean it everyday."

Eddie credits his mom for giving him some tips and recommendations for spelling.

She suggested he study words in the dictionary and the thesaurus, and also study words that have different definitions. He explained that the color "red" is spelled differently than if someone "read" a book.

Eddie is hoping to compete in Omaha at the state spelling bee on Feb. 26.