Culver City Observer -

Culver City Middle School seventh-grader Cooper Komatsu made it to the Semifinals today, May 27, in the 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland. Komatsu was only one of 49 spellers to advance after having made it through the Preliminaries which consisted of the Preliminaries Test and two rounds of onstage oral spelling.

Komatsu, who was the 13th speller in the Preliminary rounds in the nationally televised event on ESPN3, was given the word "amarillo" in the morning round. After asking the for the word's definition he correctly spelled the word with confidence. During the afternoon round Komatsu repeated his earlier performance as he spelled the word "nockerl" without hesitation.

The National Spelling Bee Semifinals will be shown live tomorrow morning, Thursday, May 28, starting at 7:00 a.m. PST on ESPN2. The Finals will be shown live tomorrow night starting at 5:00 p.m. PST on ESPN.

Observer Reporter Lynne Bronstein wrote an article several months ago on Komatsu being honored by the Culver City Council on Monday, March 9. You can read her article linked here: http://www.culvercityobserver.com/story/2015/03/12/news/spelling-winner-honored-by-council/4659.html