Fernanda Arnay

A Lehigh Acres middle school student will be heading to Washington, D.C., to take part in the June National Spelling Bee. She won county competition Thursday with the word “punctual.”

Fernanda Arnay, an eighth grade student at Varsity Lakes Middle School, threw her hands up to her face after spelling the word correctly at the 12th Annual Lee County Middle School Spelling Bee. It was held at Three Oaks Middle School in San Carlos Park.

Ironically enough, her name was misspelled on her name tag as she stood on the stage spelling words during each round.

A lot of students often ask the meaning of the word or for it to be used in a sentence, but not Arnay, 14, who spelled it out without a problem.

Neesh Patel, a seventh grader at Dunbar Middle School came in second. The 12-year-old was stumped when he couldn’t spell “ethanol.”

Some 40 students from 20 schools in the county competed in the contest.