MADISON, Wis. — Can you spell winner? Luis Vincent Bautista can after winning the Madison All-City Spelling Bee on Saturday.
Luis, 13, an eighth grade student of St. Maria Goretti Catholic School, pictured left, beat out Aiden Devmina Wijeyakulasuriya, an eighth grade student at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School in Madison.
Spelling Bee champion
Luis Vincent Bautista, left, is flanked by city spelling bee runner-up Aiden Demina Wijeyakulasuriya. Both were the top two in the 2024 city spelling bee.
Bautista won out over Wijeyakulasuriya who battled each other through 20 of 30 rounds. Wijeyakulasuriya was the current two-time returning Madison spelling bee champion. He lost on the spelling of the word “spectatoritis”, an excessive indulgence in forms of amusement in which one is a passive spectator rather than an active participant. Wijeyakulasuriya finished as the first runner-up.
After Aiden incorrectly spelled it, Bautista spelled it correctly and then his winning word which was “menudo”, a traditional Mexican soup, all to claim the gold-plated city bee trophy.