A 12-year-old St. Paul’s Lutheran School student competed into the third round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee after winning a series of local competitions.

Carter Daily, who earlier this year won the Cullman County Spelling Bee, is among five Alabama students and 500 nationwide represented at the Scripps competition in Washington D.C. He made the third round, but was eliminated with the word “postern,” according his mother, Shannon Daily.

Daily’s mother said her son has a passion for words and has won numerous competitions on his way to the national stage.

“He’s excited to be here,” Shannon Daily said. “This is a lifelong dream to make it to the nationals. He has a very black and white sense of fairness and he felt it was fair therefore he is happy.”

Shannon Daily said her son has a syndrome known as hyperlexia, which gives an individual an advanced ability to read words prior to training, typically before the age of 5. She said he first began spelling words at 18 months old.

“He made it to round two and was going to round three; this is just a great honor and something he has dreamed about a long time,” she said.

Carter Daily, besides his extraordinary spelling ability, is also a scuba diver and has explored many of the springs in north and east Florida, and swam with manatees in Crystal River. He also plays chess.

“Besides words, he has a love of the water, just scuba diving and exploring,” Shannon Daily said. 

He will attend St. Bernard Preparatory School in the fall.

In addition to winning the county spelling bee, he has won several at St. Paul’s and the inaugural Cullman Lions’ spelling bee at the Cullman County Fair last fall.

Among Carter Daily’s many winning words in spelling bees are babushka, prattle, electrolysis and hubbub.

ESPN 3 has been showing the competition, which will switch to ESPN Thursday and Friday.