Jeremy Pople, an unflappable 12-year-old who says he barely practiced, won the 58th Annual Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee yesterday.

His winning word was clavichord, an early keyboard instrument that is smaller and weaker in tone than a piano.

For Jeremy, a seventh-grader at Andrew Mellon Middle School in Mt. Lebanon, the word was a piece of cake. Never flinching, he spelled it in a few seconds, then raised his arms in triumph.

From a field of 31 finalists, Jeremy and four other kids made it through 11 rounds unscathed.

Then all his competitors misspelled their mind-numbing words -- ephedrine (a white crystalline alkaloid); brontophobia (abnormal fear of thunder); croustade (a crisp shell in which food is served); and avifauna (birds of a region, environment or period).

Jeremy drew an equally daunting word -- terraqueous, an adjective that means "consisting of land and water." He nailed it to move into the lead.

But to win the bee, he had to spell one more word. Clavichord sounded like a winner to him, and it was.

Jeremy said he studied only a couple of hours a week to prepare. But his mother, Amy, said he had a head start, having been obsessed with words for most of his young life.

"He's studied spelling lists since he was in third grade," she said.

"Mom, it was second grade," Jeremy said.

His win in the regional final earns him an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the National Spelling Bee in May. He also won a trophy, a $100 savings bond, a Webster's dictionary and the Steelers 75th Anniversary Medallion Collection.

The regional bee, for students in grades four through eight, was sponsored by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Carnegie Science Center. It was held at the Frick Fine Arts Building at the University of Pittsburgh.

Runner-up in the bee was Nick Luchini, a seventh-grader at Holy Trinity School in Robinson. Nick missed on avifauna.

Alexandra Poremba, a seventh-grader at Elizabeth Forward Middle School, finished third. Fourth place went to seventh-grader Kyle Barron of Independence Middle School in Bethel Park, and the fifth-place finisher was Danielle Burton, a sixth-grader at Dorseyville Middle School.