Frenship Middle School’s Matthew Noel stood on stage and correctly spelled the word “koan” to win the regional spelling bee for the second year in a row. Noel will be heading to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. on May 27th to represent the South Plains area.

Noel competed in 12 rounds against spellers from around the region who each won their individual district competitions. When the realization set-in that he had won the regional bee, Matthew ran with his arms open to celebrate with his mom.

“It feels great,” Noel said. “I feel like I will be more prepared for nationals this year than I was last year. I will try to do better than I did last year.”

Noel’s dad, Michael, said he is proud of his son and all of his hard work and dedication to the spelling bee.

“We are very proud of Matthew,” Michael said. “He’s worked very hard and studied for many, many hours to try to prepare for this bee.”

Matthew said that no matter who won the regional spelling bee, in his eyes, all participants are winners.

“I feel like everyone is a winner in this spelling bee because they all won their district spelling bees to come here,” he said. “Everyone has been a champion at some point and they all have great spelling skills.

Congratulations, again, to Matthew and good luck at nationals! Frenship Nation will be cheering you on.