By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — It really shouldn’t be a surprise that Nicholas Jachowski won the Maui District spelling bee last night, considering his spelling bloodlines.
Two years ago, his brother, Matthew, was both Maui and Hawai‘i spelling bee champion before going on to finish in a tie for 22nd place in the national contest in Washington.
This year, Nicholas, an eighth-grader at Kalama Intermediate School in Makawao, took home the title after spelling "Morpheus" and then "ostium."
Nicholas, a trophy in his hand and a bunch of leis around his neck, said he received lots of help from his coaches, Sharon Higa and Karen Morioka, and plenty of support from his parents, Douglas and Maile Jachowski.
Runner-up was Ariel Pacleb, an eighth-grader at ‘?ao Intermediate School in Wailuku. She is the daughter of Gilbert and Teresa Pacleb.
The Hawai‘i spelling bee champion wins a trip to Washington to compete in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. The trip is sponsored by The Honolulu Advertiser.
The state champion also will receive a Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary; a $200 Sears merchandise certificate; a Radio Shack compact disc player; a $100 U.S. savings bond from Samuel Louis Sugarman; a Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee gift certificate; and, for the winner’s parents, a $20 Tesoro Hawai‘i gift certificate.
The winner’s school will receive a computer and printer from Comp USA and a World Book Millennium 2001 Multimedia Reference Library from the Hawai‘i Court Reporters Association.
Aloha Airlines will fly Neighbor Island contestants to O‘ahu for the state competition at no charge.
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