Advertiser Staff
Matthew won.
That is, Matthew Won, an 8th-grade student at ‘Iolani School, won the Honolulu district spelling bee yesterday on his home turf — at the ‘Iolani Amphitheater.
Matthew correctly spelled paralysis to capture the title, after second-place finisher Samuel Morales stumbled on metamorphosis.
Matthew, the son of Reed and Angie Won of Kane‘ohe, said he practiced "a really long time" for the bee.
"I took a tape recorder, and spoke and spelled all the words into it," he said. "Then I tested myself." He said he spent many lunches with ‘Iolani teacher Leslie Evans in preparation for yesterday’s competition.
Both Matthew Won and Samuel Morales advance to the state bee March 31 in Honolulu.
Samuel, an 8th grader at Kawananakoa Middle School, is the son of Alexander Flores and Angelina Khoury.
The Hawai‘i spelling bee champion wins a trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. The trip is sponsored by The Honolulu Advertiser.
The state champ 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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