Kirkland Smallwood took the crown at the ninth annual DeKalb County Spelling Bee, held Thursday night at DeKalb County High School.Smallwood, an eighth-grader at DeKalb West School and the 13-year-old son of Jimmy and Jennifer Smallwood of Liberty, correctly spelled the words “cholera” and “extemporaneous” to claim victory in the competition.Christian Sisk, an 11-year-old fifth-grader at Northside Elementary School, took the runner-up position at the bee.Sisk, the grandson of Donald and Rosie Arnold of Smithville, correctly spelled the word “carbohydrates” to clinch runner-up honors.Thirty-nine DeKalb County students from the fourth to the eighth grade participated in the annual contest, which went four rounds this year before a winner was named.Although Smallwood took the top spot in the fourth round, Sisk, Reagan Patton, and Morgan Vickers had to be brought back to the stage for a fifth and sixth round to determine the runner-up position.DeKalb Middle School, DeKalb West School, and Northside Elementary School students competed in recent bees at the school level to win berths in the county competition.Smallwood and Sisk will compete against students from 39 other Tennessee counties in the Middle Tennessee Regional Spelling Bee on March 2 at Belmont University in NashvilleThe regional bee will be sponsored by Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz and Belmont University.The winner of the Regional Spelling Bee will go on to compete in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, held in Washington D.C.Participants in this year's county-wide spelling bee were Anna Chew, Isaac Cross, Braxton Hutchings, Katherine Malone, Raiden Martin, Logan Speaks, and Malia Stanley, all fourth-graders at Northside; and Madi Cantrell, Malone Fletcher, Molly Hall, Dulce Marcel, Ashley Phillips, Christian Sisk, Isaac Walker, and Derek Young, all fifth-graders at Northside.DeKalb Middle School sixth-graders competing were Kayla Belk, Olivia Fuson, Haley Martin, Allison Maynard, Shauna Pedroza, Hunter Speaks, and Justin Stanick.Alexis Cantrell, Timothy Cassinera, Reagan Patton, Skylar Pease, and Alyssa Sewell represented the seventh grade at DeKalb Middle.Participants from the West School were Lexy Gammons, Christian Trail and Kelsey Wade for the fourth grade, Callie Mulloy and Thomas Tippin for the fifth grade and Mark Mace for the sixth grade.Brandy Rock and Casey Vickers were seventh-grade entrants from DeKalb West, and the eighth grade was represented by Madison Hayes, Mary Mofield, Kirkland Smallwood, and Morgan Vickers.Ten students advanced to the second round of the bee, including Smallwood, Sisk, Vickers, Patton, Malone Fletcher, Justin Stanick, Brandy Rock, Madi Cantrell, Haley Martin, and Malia Stanley all advanced to the second round of competition.The third round of competition saw four students remaining; Smallwood, Sisk, Patton and Vickers.