Andrew Dau, an eighth-grader at St. Ann's Model School in Kane'ohe, claimed the Windward District spelling bee championship last night and will move on to the state contest for the second year in a row.

"I feel very good," he said after the competition at Le Jardin Academy in Kailua. "I'm excited that I get to keep the title for this year again."

After 10 rounds of intense spelling against 16 other contestants, Dau correctly spelled "neologism" and "iguana" to take the title.

"He's a hard worker," said his coach, Kehau Bugado, an eighth-grade religion and social studies teacher at St. Ann's. "He does more than what's expected of him. He's very eager to learn."

Dau and runner-up Malia Smith, a seventh-grader at St. Anthony Parish School, advance to The Advertiser's 23nd annual Hawai'i State Spelling Bee on March 16.

Like Dau, Smith practiced a list of hundreds of words with her coach (her dad) for at least half an hour every night.

For her, the most challenging word she was asked to spell was the one that put her out of the competition: "lariat."

"I was thinking French instead of Spanish," she said.

The state spelling bee will be televised on OC16.

The state contest winner will be awarded an expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 29 and 30.

Here is the schedule of district spelling bees and qualifiers for the state bee on March 16: