WASHINGTON - Will Erwin had no problem spelling furbelow and therapeutant.

The 12-year-old Decatur boy even navigated a linguistic minefield on a written exam, spelling arcane terms such as lycanthropy, succussatory and sprachgefuhl.

But Will got tripped up in the fourth round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday afternoon when asked to spell bonspiel.

Will was sponsored by the Herald & Review and Archer Daniels Midland Co., as he faced 274 top spellers from across the nation and beyond. He was crowned champion of the regional spelling bee in March at Millikin University, earning the right to square off against the best spellers in the country and other lands, including Canada, Guam, American Samoa and Puerto Rico.

Will just finished the seventh grade at Maroa-Forsyth Junior High School, and he has been studying Latin online through Northwestern University.

The dead language has helped him with word derivations. But his Latin lessons didn't yield a clue to spell bonspiel, a.;Dutch word.;meaning a match between curling clubs.

Will completed a 25-word written test and successfully spelled furbelow in the competition's qualifying rounds. The speller's written and oral scores were added, and the top spellers advanced.

"I wasn't confident on all of them, because half of them I guessed on," Will said. "I was just a lucky guesser."

But seasoned spellers also tend to agree with scientist Louis Pasteur, who once remarked, "Fortune favors the prepared mind."

A fellow speller remarked to Will earlier this week that the harder he studies, the luckier he gets. Will agreed.

Competition turned cut-throat in following rounds, as spellers squared off to spell words orally. Just one letter separates spellers from continuing and being eliminated. A speller can start to spell a word again, but the sequence of letters spoken cannot be changed.

Will already is pumped about the prospect of retuning to the national competition next year.

"This year, I didn't know until regionals that I might be going to nationals, so I didn't really study too much for that," Will said. "I was pretty excited when I made it through rounds one and two. That was my goal, to get to round three."

Will plans to watch the remaining spellers compete today.

ESPN will air preliminary championship rounds from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and ABC will broadcast the championship rounds from 7 to 9 p.m. today.

Will's parents were bursting with pride at their son's performance.

"He's exceeded any expectations I had for a spelling bee," said proud mother Sarah Erwin.

Some spellers said they would study up to six hours a day and hired language tutors. Will maintained a balanced life with Boy Scouts, piano lessons and school activities.

"He must have gotten the spelling gene from somewhere," Sarah Erwin said.

"It's not even his favorite subject," added his father, Matthew Erwin.

Will said he enjoyed meeting the other spellers, and his parents were impressed by the good will and sportsmanship from spellers' families.

Sarah Erwin calls the spellers "mind athletes."

"Everybody we've met has been so warm and friendly," Sarah Erwin said. "They're congratulatory when you do well and sympathetic when you don't do well."

Spellers often could be seen studying together in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt hotel and encouraging each other in days leading up to the bee, Matthew Erwin said.

"There's no such thing as a sore loser in the spelling bee," Matthew Erwin said.

Former Decatur resident Greg Touney also kept an eye on the progress of area spellers.

The Decatur native and St. Teresa High School graduate placed ninth in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1999.

Touney just finished his junior year at Notre Dame University. He returned to the spelling bee again this year and helped the media keep informed of bee developments.

The competition keeps getting tougher and tougher each year, Touney said.

"The kids have gotten so much better from the time when I was in there," Touney said. "That's not to take away from people in the past. It's a testament to how hard they've worked."

Mike Frazier can be reached at mfrazier@herald-review.com or 421-7985.