WASHINGTON — Fourteen-year-old Talmage Nakamoto of the Big Island made it all the way to 12th place Thursday in the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Talmage, an eighth-grader from Konawaena Middle School, outlasted most of the 292 other competitors to finish near the top.

He survived until Round 6 of the semifinals, when he was tripped up by the word "caliche," which means a hardened conglomeration of gravel, rock and soil.

He spelled the word "c-a-l-i-c-c-h-i."
Talmage's error stopped him just short of competing in the final championship rounds. But he accepted it with good nature, pleased by the fact that he had finished far ahead of where he was in last year's national bee, where he placed 91st.

"My advice (to other aspiring bee participants) is to have fun and talk to the other spellers instead of just sitting up on stage like some kind of stiff, serious robot," said Talmage, who wore a flowered Hawaiian shirt that made him stand out in a sea of plain polo shirts. "It helps you to stay calm and enjoy it all."

His mother, Traci Nakamoto, said her son has four younger siblings and is used to staying calm in the midst of chaos.
"Not too much fazes him," she said.
Talmage said he was sure he was going to make a mistake in Round 5, when he had to spell the word "passerelle," which means pedestrian bridge. Still, he managed to chuckle when a bee official used the word in a humorous sentence about how all the passerelles in Las Vegas make it easy for gamblers to get to the casinos and lose their money.

"I feel very lucky that I got that word right," he said. "I had never heard it before. After I spelled it, I was expecting the bell to go off. When the judges looked at me and said, 'Yes, you got it right,' I thought, 'Whoa.' "

Talmage, who is sponsored by The Advertiser, said he believes his two years in the national bee have taught him strong study habits that will serve him well as he enters high school. This is the last year that he was young enough to compete in the national bee.

'It's definitely helped me take apart words and figure out what they mean," he said. "I think it will help me in English class, especially if we have any spelling tests."

This year's bee, at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Washington, involved a record number of spellers — 293. Forty-one survived to compete in Thursday's semifinal round, including spellers from Canada and Jamaica.

All spellers took a written test Tuesday and spelled two words on stage Wednesday. They had to score at least 28 points out of a possible 31 to make it to the semifinals.

Spellers competing in this year's event ranged in age from 9 to 15. Of the 293, 150 were boys and 143 were girls.
This year's champion will win $30,000 in cash, a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and other prizes.
The bee's finals will air live tonight on ABC from 7-9 p.m.