OK, admit it, a seventh-grader CAN spell better than many of the rest of us.

Talmage Nakamoto, a student at Konawaena Middle School, adroitly spelled his way to the championship of the 2008 Hawai'i State Spelling Bee at Paliku Theatre Sunday afternoon.

Sixth-grader Gabriel Salazar, a student at Maui Waena Intermediate, came in second.

In all, 14 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from across the state and from both public and private schools spelled their way through words like metathesis, zoanthropy and eucrasia.

Brows were furrowed — and the dreaded bell rung — over words like bailiwick, decorticate and terraqueous.

It's not an easy task. It takes courage to stand in front of the audience at the theater, a statewide TV audience on OC16 and an international Web audience and spell those words. All of the contestants this year deserve credit for a job well done.

Talmage will head off for Washington, D.C. in May to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Of course, Hawai'i will be pulling for Talmage during the competition. He'll surely represent Hawai'i well on this national stage.

As the lead sponsor, The Advertiser takes pride in the state spelling bee and looks forward to sending Hawai'i's winner to the national bee in Washington.

Each and every one of our bee champions over the years has done Hawai'i proud — we know Talmage will follow in those footsteps.