BENTON TOWNSHIP — Brandon Kirkendall spun around, threw his right arm in the air and yelled, “It’s such an honor,” immediately after winning the Cloverleaf Spelling Bee Tuesday at Lake Michigan College.

The autistic seventh grade student from Brandywine Middle School out-spelled more than 60 students from two counties to punch his ticket to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

“This is the best day of my entire life,” said Kirkendall, who finished fourth in the bee a year ago. “If I end up becoming a celebrity I hope I am not chased by the paparazzi.”

Brandon’s mother, Debbie, had tears in her eyes as she watched her son win.

“It was unbelievable because he’s come such a long way with his autism,” said Debbie, who coached her son on Brandywine Middle School’s spelling team. “For him to be first-place in the regional spelling bee and go onto Washington, D.C. — I don’t know how to explain it. I am just excited for him.”

Debbie said Brandon was diagnosed with severe autism when he was 3 years old, but has since progressed to high functioning.

She believes he has a photographic memory, which came in handy Tuesday.

“Usually all he has to do is look at something and he knows it,” Debbie said.

Michael Houseman, a student aid at Brandywine, sat onstage beside Brandon throughout the competition. Debbie said Houseman was there to keep Brandon quiet and calm in respect for the other competitors.

“Sitting down is the worst thing for him because he gets very fidgety,” Debbie said.

Kirkendall was as entertaining as he was effective at spelling. He told the audience how nervous he was several times and kept a running tab of how many spellers were left.

“And then there were 10,” he yelled out at one point, before explaining “I just thought you’d want to know.”

He often pumped his fist and said, “yes” after spelling a word correctly.

“Anything that comes in his head comes out of his mouth,” Debbie said.

The competition began with 66 registered spellers from 22 schools throughout Berrien and Van Buren counties.

After four hours and 12 rounds, Kirkendall and Aashish Harikrishnan, of St. Joseph Upton Middle School, were the final two standing.

At that point in the competition, whenever a person misspelled a word, his competitor had a chance to spell it correctly and then spell another word correctly to win the bee.

Kirkendall slipped up on the word “ferrier,” and Harikrishnan spelled it right.

“I thought I was done for,” Kirkendall said.

However, Harikrishnan could not capitalize on his chance to win as he misspelled “consonance,” which Kirkendall, in return, got right.

Kirkendall then correctly spelled the next word to give Brandywine its first Cloverleaf champion.

Two other area students finished in the top 20: Emily Waggoner, of Buchanan High School; and Jenna Laskowski, of Ring Lardner Middle School.