LIHU'E, Kaua'i —Athena Abadilla emerged as the winner of the 2010 Kauai District Spelling Bee by correctly spelling "protocol."

The sixth-grade student at St. Theresa School in Kekaha outlasted Harmony Graziano, a Kapa'a Middle School seventh-grader, recently at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, according to spelling bee coordinator Billi Smith.

Abadilla and Graziano both go to O'ahu for the state spelling bee March 14 at Windward Community College.