WASHINGTON – Thirteen-year-old Molly Nichols of Machiasport heads into the finals of the 75th annual National Spelling Bee today after facing fierce competition Wednesday against 249 other champion spellers from around the nation and neighboring countries.

Although the hundreds of parents, television cameras and reporters watching every move the spellers made seemed to trigger nervous jitters among many of the young contestants, Nichols breezed through the opening round on Wednesday morning with flying colors.

“Flagitiously,” said the seventh-grader from the Elm Street School in East Machias with her hands folded confidently behind her back. “F-L-A-G-I-T-I-O-U-S-L-Y.”

The judges paused briefly to confer on the spelling of a word that describes acting in a brutal or cruel manner, then nodded that she had spelled the word correctly.

Nichols floated back to her seat as a smile beamed from her face. Others fell short of the same good fortune.

By the time the first round was completed, 75 were disqualified after misspelling words that included seguidilla, hieroglyphics, dysphemism and mitochondrion.

Then came the second round, a written test of 25 words, held just after noon, when 80 more contestants were disqualified. Of the 25 words, Nichols spelled 19 correctly.

She said that just passing her first round Wednesday morning was exactly what she aimed to do. Anything else is icing on the cake.

“That was my goal. I wanted to just pass the first round,” she said. “I’m not expecting anything spectacular, but I wanted to get through that.”

This is the first year that the bee has featured a written test, which Scripps-Howard organizers added in order to keep the competition limited to two days. Bee staffers noted that spellers have spent more time at the microphone in recent years.

One speller, 14-year-old Kayla Withers of Meadville, Pa., who is blind, met with judges on Tuesday night to recite the words on the written test.

The 250 spellers who began the contest, sponsored by their local newspapers, come from every state except Vermont and Utah, as well as from the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Bangor Daily News sponsored Nichols’ six-day trip to the nation’s capital with her parents, Lynn Brubaker, first violinist with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and Gene Nichols, a professor at the University of Maine at Machias.

This year’s winner will take home $12,000 and the chance to shake hands with President Bush, while all participants will receive a commemorative watch from Scripps-Howard, a $100 U.S. savings bond and a cash prize determined by the number of rounds they complete.

So what’s the secret to Molly Nichols’ spelling skills?

“It’s not a secret,” she confided. “I just have a visual memory. When I see a word I remember it.”

Nichols then shared a thought from her classmate Kaitlan Sprangas: “Everybody has a photographic memory; you just need enough film.”

The ESPN cable sports network will broadcast the bee’s final rounds live on Thursday. More details of the contest may be found at www.spellingbee.com.