With the Fargo area facing record flooding and bad winter weather making for dangerous travel, West Fargo seventh-grader Shantanu Srivatsa almost didn't make it to the state spelling bee.

Now, the 12-year-old is going on to national competition, representing his second state in as many years.

Shantanu, who qualified for the Scripps National Spelling Bee last year as a regional champion in Ohio, where his family lived at the time, won the North Dakota spelling bee on Friday by correctly spelling the word brunneous - a scientific word meaning brown.

His father, Sanjay, said the family is not in a flood zone along the Red River threatening Fargo. But he said the interstate between Fargo and Bismarck was treacherous Thursday.

"It was 40 mph the whole way," he said. "Half the people told us not to come."

Cass County's other contestant at the bee did not make the trip, nor did 12 others out of the field of 101 students who qualified, said Rick Heidt, associate director of the North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders.

"Postponement was not a choice because there wasn't a place available (in Bismarck) in the next at least three weeks," he said.

Heidt said some of his helpers also did not make it because their car went in the ditch after they left Grand Forks. They were not hurt.

The state bee includes a written test that sends the top 25 spellers - or a few more if there are ties - to an oral spelldown that typically includes many rounds. This year's spelldown ended quickly, with the field narrowed from 28 to three after the fourth round.

Jaaz Caterall, 14, a Hazen eighth-grader, dropped out in the fifth round to finish third. Shantanu then outlasted New Rockford-Sheyenne eighth-grader Katie Gisi, 13, to win the title in the next round. Typically, when the bee comes down to the final two spellers, they battle back and forth for several rounds.

Shantanu said given the fact that North Dakota sends only one qualifier to the national bee, he did not expect to make it back.

"I thought it would be hard to win," he said.

Students must be younger than 16 years old and not beyond the 8th grade to compete in the state bee. The North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders is the main sponsor. Other sponsors are the North Dakota Newspaper Association, North Dakota Masonic Foundation and the North Dakota Association of County Superintendents.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is May 26-28 in Washington, D.C.