Irving Elementary fifth grader Lilliana Delgado, who was the winner of the 2022 Area 24 Spelling Bee, will be defending her title as a competitor at Wednesday’s 2023 contest set for 10 AM at the CISD Central Offices.

                This will be the third year Delgado has represented Irving as their campus champion. She first competed for the Tigers at the Area level in the second grade. As the youngest contestant, she finished in the top five. At this year’s spelling challenge, she will be going up against elementary and middle school campus winners from Cleburne, along with Keene, Joshua, Godley, Rio Vista and Keene Adventist Elementary.

Her fellow Cleburne school champions include Idaliz Palomo-5^th grade, Adams Elementary; Alex Rodriguez-5^th grade, C.C. Cooke; Jaxon Miller-5^th grade, Gerard; Ashlynn Bell-4^th grade, Marti; Wendibelle Youngberg-6^th grade, Smith Middle School and Khloe Rodriguez-6^th grade, Wheat Middle School.

The Area 24 winner will go on to compete at the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee taking place in early March and sponsored by the Texas Christian University College of Education.