There are roughly a quarter of a million words in the latest edition of the Oxford dictionary. Kendall Powers from Lake Highlands Junior High may not know how to spell all of them, but she knew more than enough to win the Dallas County Spelling Bee at the University of Texas at Dallas on Tuesday, February 7.

Powers took first place in the public school competition while Varenya Shrikant, a Town Center Elementary, took second place. The private school competition was won by Shanna Druffner from All Saints Catholic School and second went to Sadiq Shaikh from Brighter Horizons School.

All four of these students will move onto the Regional Spelling Bee, where they'll compete with the best spellers from 38 other North and East Texas counties on March 24. Out of all the competitors at the Regional Spelling Bee, only one will move onto the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.