LIHUE — For St. Theresa School seventh-grade student Keaupuni Miyake, Thursday was a “jamboree” topped with “graham,” at the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School cafeteria.
Miyake correctly spelled “jamboree” and “graham” to repeat as the top speller for the 2020 Kauai Complex Area Spelling Bee presented by the state Department of Education Kauai Complex Area with Kama‘aina Kids being the title sponsor.
“I was kind of nervous,” Miyake said. “I had trouble with ‘abandon,’ but, mostly, I knew the words.”
Miyake said going to states doesn’t bother him.
“I was there last year,” he said. “I got an app to practice. I put all the words (20 pages) in the app. It pronounces the different ways the word sounds, and I just spell it out. My mother also pronounces the words for me, and that helps.”
With the repeat championship, Miyake will be joined by the bee’s third-place finisher, Madeline Soltren of Kapaa Middle School, in representing Kauai at the state Spelling Bee on March 13 at New Hope auditorium on Oahu. The off-island trip is being sponsored by Kama‘aina Kids.
“Goliath” is a word she won’t be forgetting, soon, one of Soltren’s fans said after the dreaded ‘ding’ of the wrong spelling bell pierced through the audience that crowded the stage in the CKMS cafeteria.
The ‘ding’ also signalled Zachary Ing, an eighth-grade student at Island School, to take the microphone. But “pilferer” eluded the young Voyager speller, and set up Miyake for the pair of comfortable, confident spellings of “jamboree” and “graham.”
Traditionally, the first- and second-place finishers would represent Kauai at the state bee, but Brent Mizutani, the DOE East Kauai Complex Area renewal specialist and Kauai bee coordinator, said Ing would not be available to make the trip, moving Soltren to be the second island representative.
The Thursday night bee represented one of the longest events taking place, the field of 16 students, a larger amount than previous bees, working through 18 rounds before Miyake claimed the championship trophy.
Five casualties left the stage in the first two rounds before the stage settled for a clean round 3.
“Canonnade” and “verandas” whittled the field to nearly half of the starting 16 in the fourth round, and following two more rounds of unscathed spellers, pronouncer Jan Tenbruggencate announced a seventh-inning stretch so spellers could stretch out their stress.
A “pattern” of five more rounds followed before “guardian” claimed another speller in Round 14. “cattail” struck in round 15 before “corgi” and “fabulist” announced the “goliath” in the 17th round.
Participating students, many advancing to the Kauai District bee by winning their respective school-level bees, included Corbin Castle and Isabella Salamey of Alaka‘i O Kauai Public Charter School, Jeanine Grace Longboy and Gareson Carveiro of CKMS, Keira Parker and Kaheainalu “Nalu” Geet of Hanalei School, Zachary Ing and Jacob Brosamer of Island School, Madeline Soltren and Kristian Paleracio of Kapaa Middle School, Noa Castle and Araiyan McDonald of Kilauea School, Keaupuni Miyake and Kalen Shimatsu of St. Theresa School, and Seiah Snowden and Emman Carinio of Waimea Canyon Middle School.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
