Perfectly spelling punishment, dangerous, enormous, siren, gouge and vertical, Nancy O’Rourke placed first in the Staples Elementary School fifth grade spelling bee on Jan. 19.

Her toughest word was “gouge,” as O’Rourke spelled it as if it were a question. “I didn’t think I had that one,” she said later, “I totally surprised myself.”

O’Rourke lasted 11 rounds in a tense match where three competitors made it to the last round, but Jasmyne Myran missed on the word incomplete and Nick Franzen stumbled on juvenile. “I didn’t think he was going to miss, he’s such a good speller,” O’Rourke said about the Franzen’s last round.

O’Rourke said spelling “just comes naturally, but I do study a lot.”

She will have another chance at the district spelling bee on Thursday, Jan. 26.