Las Vegas speller advances

WASHINGTON -- Each time it became his turn at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, Dakota Jones reached up to adjust the microphone because the Nebraska girl ahead of him was a head taller.

On the ballroom stage of the Grand Hyatt hotel, he sat up straight, often glancing over at the giant screen to his right where a running tally of the contest was being displayed.

He was animated, smiling often and applauding fellow spellers when they conquered a tough word.

While Dakota might have seemed a bit fidgety at times, you couldn't quibble with the results. Of 273 young people who started the contest, the 13-year-old Las Vegan was one of only 48 who advanced to today's semifinals of the big-time competition.

The semifinal rounds will air live on ESPN, starting at 7 a.m. in Las Vegas. The finals will be broadcast on ABC-TV at 8 p.m.

Dakota successfully spelled two words during the onstage rounds on Thursday. The first was cortisone, the steroid hormone. The second was upas, which means something that is a poisonous or harmful influence.

"I was very nervous before I spelled my first word but after that I was OK," he said.

He later learned that he also had scored well on a written test that was given to all contestants on Wednesday. The test consisted of 50 words, but only 25 were counted to the spellers' scores, and they did not know which ones.

Looking over the results of the written test, Dakota saw he spelled 23 of 25 correctly. That coupled with his performance Thursday was enough to propel him into the next round.

"I'm glad that today's rounds are over and done with and that we get a break," he said at the end of a long day. The young teen with the short haircut and glasses sat on stage for long stretches while other students took their turns.

Dakota, who is sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is a seventh-grader at Hyde Park Middle School, a magnet school on Hinson Street near Charleston Boulevard that specializes in math and science. He competed on Nevada's team to the national Mathcounts competition in New Orleans earlier this year. He plays viola and piano, likes to play chess and aspires to become an Eagle Scout.

As Bee director Paige Kimble announced the semifinalists, Dakota sat in the audience with his father, Mike, an optometrist, and his mother, Jamie. Dakota showed little reaction at first, while his mom smiled at him and his dad patted his knee.

"He has worked hard, and it has been a long road," his mother said. "We are very proud of him."

Dakota has three little sisters -- Cassidy, 11, Cheyenne, 8, and Carly, 4 -- who were back in Las Vegas with their grandparents. He said he and his sisters are early risers, so he expected they would be watching him on television this morning.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephens media.com or 202-783-1760.