Speller 389, Sebastian Castilla, an Ohio eighth grader, misspelled "koftgari," an Indian ornamental damascene work in which steel is inlaid with gold.
"I'm excited to see what happens," Sebastian said before the competition. "I have a lot of people who are rooting for me."
Sebastian said he likes seeing how so many languages come together to create the words we know. His favorite roots are Greek and Latin.
In addition to spelling, Sebastian likes to play piano and soccer. He said he didn't expect to make it this far -- after all, there was tough competition in his area, and one other student he competed against locally also made the finals, Sheridan Hennessy, speller 449.
Sebastian's younger sisters, Juliana and Emily Rose, have helped him study by reading words to him from the medical dictionary.