S-u-r-p-r-i-s-e-d

Baron Fenwick did not know those words.

Not mordancy, which means a biting and caustic style. Nor depauperate, an adjective that describes habitats with little biodiversity.

So when he spelled the first one correctly, then the next, he couldn't hide his surprise.

Baron Fenwick is going to Washington to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

"Oh my God," Baron mouthed as his younger brothers jumped up and down in the crowd at the Winston-Salem Journal Regional Spelling Bee yesterday.

Baron walked away from the microphone toward his parents before bee organizers could stop him and pull him back to claim his prize.

The runner-up, Anna White, had tripped up on fiduciary, a word that she did not know, she said afterward. So she borrowed from a word she did know.

"I was thinking ‘fuchsia,' so I just went with ‘chs'" in spelling it, said White, an eighth-grade student from Caldwell County. "My nerves were just standing on end."

Thirty-two spellers started the bee at Joel Coliseum. The regional bee crowns a winner from the champions of local spelling bees.

Baron, an eighth-grade student at Green Valley School in Boone, won Watauga County's bee. It's the last year he is eligible.

Of the 32 spellers, 10 were knocked out in the first three rounds, getting wrong prodigal, etymology, concerto and other words well beyond the average middle-school vocabulary.

Three more rounds and more tough words -- phosphorous, pompadour, ambrosial -- and there were five spellers left.

Then the words became harder, and spellers had to go with their best guesses.

In the first of the final rounds, no one got a word right, so everyone had to try again. There were two more rounds in which one of the five spellers got their word, but then couldn't win the bee by spelling their next word right.

Finally, Anna spelled aldehyde and Baron spelled opusculum. That meant that one of them could win. After a round in which both spellers misspelled their words, Baron then correctly spelled mordancy and got his chance.

Baron said he knew pauper, and it seemed like it was the root of depauperate. So he gave it a try.

"Those words were all completely unheard of," Baron said. "There's a lot of luck involved."

Baron won

a Webster's Third New International Dictionary for himself and one for his school, a $100 savings bond, a year's subscription to Encyclo-paedia Britannica Online and the all-expenses-paid trip to the national bee for himself and a parent.

Baron said he did not have much chance to study for the bee. He plays piano and viola, and practices about three hours a day.

On Saturday, he found out that he was accepted into the N.C. School of the Arts for next year. He plans to study piano.

On Tuesday, he will turn 14. Then he has to start studying for the national bee.

"I'm going to do a lot more," he said. "It's going to be like an obligation."

Yesterday's regional competition was the first since the E.W.Scripps Co., the media chain that runs the bee, started charging schools a $99 entry fee.

It appears that the fee did little to discourage schools from taking part, said Ben Flynt, the Journal's community-marketing manager.

About 400 schools from a 25-county area had students take part in local spelling bees, with county or city champions moving on to yesterday's bee. That appears similar to the numbers in years past, Flynt said.

Groups of home-schoolers and private, parochial and charter schools also had their own bees.

Spelling bees have gained fans in recent years, with ESPN televising the national finals and such movies as Spellbound and Akeelah and the Bee drawing in fans.

Some parents at yesterday's bee kept lists of all the words spelled. Some closed their eyes as they heard their child spell a word; others nodded in agreement with each correct letter, and then grimaced when the child went astray.

For Baron's brothers, Ethan, 8, and Grayson, 11, the finals were impossible to watch sitting down.

Ethan jumped when Baron spelled a word correctly and would run in a circle when things got too tense.

"You have to go away at some parts," Ethan said. "It's just way too exciting."

Patrick "Bo" Kane, 13, won the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools bee, but bobbled the order of the first few letters of frankincense just before the last rounds.

"I knew it," Bo said afterward. "I had it just kind of pictured in my head … F-a-r -- Oh, darn it."

When he realized his mistake, Bo slapped the sides of his head.

He sat through the rest of the competition, spelling words correctly and wondering what might have been.

But because he's in seventh grade, there's hope, he said.

"There's always next year."

■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at

dgalindo@wsjournal.com.