BEE CHAMP'S HARD WORK, CALM SPELL OUT W-I-N-N-E-R.

Byline: Brooke Olson Daily News Staff Writer

As spelling bees go, this one was certainly a whirligig.

Thirty-five middle-school spelling champions and 200 spectators from across Los Angeles gathered Saturday at Taft High School for the Daily News Regional Spelling Bee.

Only one student would go home with the highly coveted prize: a trip to Washington, D.C., in May for a shot at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Championship.

But just 14 rounds into the competition, returning contender Amir Kasouha beat out second-time contestant Ryan Stoddard by correctly spelling ``whirligig,'' a word that, ironically, seemed an apt description for the final rounds of competition.

``Something that seems to whirl, or revolve in a cycle'' was the meaning of the word that finally stymied Stoddard and put an end to the gyre of back-and-forth competition.

The pressure throughout the event was intense. By Round 12, only Kasouha and Stoddard were still standing, each spelling words as easily as Nathaniel Webster. Tricky-sounding words such as ``variegated'' and ``palatable'' dominated the last few rounds of a nerve-wracking competition, but it all came down to ``whirligig.''

For once, Stoddard, an eighth-grader from Rosemont Middle School who had remained so calm throughout the entire affair asked, ``What?'' after the announcer pronounced the word.

The 5-foot-6-inch student leaned over to the microphone and slowly spelled the word, choosing ``I-D-E'' for the final three letters.

Ding went the bell - the cruel, awful bell that denoted disqualification - and Kasouha stepped up to the microphone.

Kasouha, from Alex Pilibos Armenian School, correctly spelled the word missed by his opponent, then topped it with a confident spelling of ``undulated.''

The auditorium broke into a round of applause, and Kasouha's supporters rushed to congratulate him. But after sailing through two hours of fervent competition, correctly spelling 14 words, Kasouha was a bit taciturn.

``It was easy,'' shrugged the eighth-grader who placed fifth in last year's competition and accepted his first-place medal with almost an air of indifference.

Kasouha and Stoddard, both strong in their spelling ability and both second-timers to the competition, seemed an unlikely match.

Kasouha whispered quietly into the microphone, often asking the announcer to repeat the words and use them in a sentence.

But Stoddard repeated each word loudly and clearly, sounding out the letters slowly and confidently. He tripped up just once and placed second.

``I'd heard (whirligig) before, but I was a little unsure about it,'' said Stoddard, who placed seventh in last year's competition.

Stoddard knuckled down and studied hard all last week, with frequent quizzes by his parents. His cool demeanor fooled everyone but him - he confessed to being tense throughout the entire competition.

``Some of the words . . . I was on shaky ground,'' Stoddard said. ``Most of them were pretty difficult, but I think I did really well.''

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PHOTO (Color) Amir Kasouha

Will travel to capital