COLCHESTER — A Middlebury student has won the statewide spelling bee for a second year in a row.

The Vermont Department of Education says Ronan Howlett, a Middlebury Union Middle School student, out-spelled other students from around Vermont on Wednesday at St. Michael’s College in Colchester.

Howlett’s winning word was “desultory.”

He will head to Washington, D.C., in June on an all-expense-paid trip to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Emily Ballou of the South Royalton School came in second, and third place went to Nicholas Knudsen of the Frederick H. Tuttle School in South Burlington.