WAILUKU, Maui — The Salazar family of Kahului yesterday saw a second son crowned Maui District Spelling Bee champion.

Maui Waena Intermediate sixth-grader Gabriel Salazar, whose brother Nathaniel was the 2003 state spelling bee champion, survived a six-round word duel with Lokelani Intermediate eighth-grader Angel Burger to claim the title.

Salazar and Burger will represent Maui District in the Hawai'i State Spelling Bee March 16 at Windward Community College.

Although sibling rivalry helped inspire Salazar, he said his older brother, now a freshman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offered valuable advice that he put to good use during the spelling bee, held at 'Iao Intermediate School.

"Spell slowly and picture the word, and think before you start spelling," Gabriel said.

Salazar's deliberate pace pushed him through to Round 10, when only he and Burger were left. With the Maui Waena student spelling first, the pair nailed "gregarious" and "castanets," "misanthropy" and "semolina," "rupee" and "discern," and "provolone" and "amenable."

After Salazar correctly spelled "malaria" in Round 14, Burger stumbled on "spinet."

Salazar then calmly spelled "allegory" to win.

His parents, Manuel and Wilma Salazar, noted that even though Nathaniel won two Maui District spelling bee titles and a state crown as a seventh- and eighth-grader, Gabriel earned his first spelling bee championship as only a sixth-grader.

His father works at home and was able to drill the boy on the word list for months in preparation for the spelling bee. "It was work first, play second," Manuel Salazar said.

Gabriel said he also enjoys tennis, playing piano and reading Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

The state winner will get a trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 29 and 30.

Here are the district winners so far and the remaining bees: