Can you spell “polymythy”? Eighth-grader Shane DeSilva can, and it qualified him for the Scripps National Spelling Bee televised on ESPN.

The Pacelli Catholic Schools student won the Minnesota Spelling Bee championship in Rochester Tuesday, and will advance to the national competition in Washington D.C. May 25-31. DeSilva has qualified for the Southeast Minnesota competition four times, but never advanced to the national contest. It’s also the first time a Pacelli student has qualified for the national event.

Pacelli faculty and students were ecstatic, said Principal Mary Holtorf.

“The energy yesterday when we announced he had won was amazing,” she said. “We are pumped.”

Holtorf said DeSilva is “extremely excited,” too.

“He’s gotten close every year, but has never won it,” she said. “He spent a lot of time studying his words and their origins.”

The competition went 36 rounds, Holtorf said, and only the winner advances to the national event.

Merriam-Webster defines polymythy, a noun, as “the inclusion of many or several stories or plots in one narrative or dramatic work.”

Shane’s sister, sixth-grader Shenali DeSilva, finished sixth at the competition, which is for fifth through eighth graders.