Calif. Boy Weaves a Perfect Spell

It announced that the spellers included quiz bowl champions, chess club presidents and taekwondo black belts. There was also an organ player, a Valentine's Day queen, a unicyclist, a juggler, a stiltwalker and someone who created her own language, Islorien, which has more than 900 words and is spoken by her friends and family.

The spellers -- from many nationalities and ranging in age from 9 to 14 -- competed for two days at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Washington, throwing down words from gnotobiotic to nemathelminth and even sphygmomanometer. And those were in the early rounds.

Once eliminated, some met with a gaggle of reporters.

"I did have a poker face in rounds 4 and 5," said Jonathan C. Horton, a 12-year-old from Gilbert, Ariz., who was knocked out in the seventh round by fustian. "Then I got rattled in the sixth round."

After analyzing their losses, most went back to root for their favorites.

"Even gamblers should never bet on a spelling bee, because it can all turn in a moment," Jonathan said. But he was putting his money on Marshall Kelly Winchester, 13, an eighth-grader from North Carolina.

They watched in awe as Marshall smiled when rathskeller was lobbed his way. "Marshall loves German words," one of the onlookers said. They groaned when serang knocked him out in the 11th round.

When Samir quickly spelled cholecyst in the 10th round, one of the other spellers listened in wonder. "Samir is just crazy-good," she said.

There was commentary: "Of course the language of origin didn't help -- it was Japanese, and the words don't transliterate," spat Matthew Betley, 13, an eighth-grader from Lowell, Mass. "It was one letter I got wrong. It was that dreaded schwa sound."

When the giant letter "S" fell from the stage's background, teenage boys howled with delight. "Welcome to the Cripps spelling bee!" one said.

Except for Anurag, who, over the howling of the audience, coolly spelled exsiccosis.