ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Elijah Martin of Roanoke shakes hands with Amelia Wentzel of Bedford County, who won the regional spelling bee Saturday.

A 13-year-old girl from Bedford County will represent the Roanoke region at the Scripps National Spelling Bee later this spring.

Amelia Wentzel, an eighth-grader at Bedford Middle School, beat 18 other school district spelling champions to win The Roanoke Times 37th annual Spelling Bee.

Amelia's winning word was "cappelletti" (pronounced KAP-e-le-dee), a plural noun of Italian and Latin origins that refers to small cases of dough usually filled with meat or cheese.

She spelled it in the 21st and final round of the 90-minute-long bee Saturday morning before a large crowd at the Holiday Inn-Airport.

The second-place finisher was Mattie Clear, 13, an eighth-grader from Smyth County.

She fell from the competition on "schipperke," (pronounced SKIP-er-kee), a small, stocky, Belgian-bred dog.

The third-place finisher was Adama Walters, 13, an eighth-grader from Alleghany County. He fell on the word "melange."

Although Saturday's event was Amelia's first appearance in The Roanoke Times' regional spelling bee, she has competed in bees elsewhere since she was 9 years old.

Her parents, Jim and Terry Wentzel, moved to Bedford County from Florida in January 2009.

After the bee, Terry Wentzel said Amelia has been practicing since the fourth grade.

"We used the dictionary, we used the computer," Terry Wentzel said, adding that Amelia often learned to spell words based on "mom pronunciations" that were at odds with the correct dictionary ones.

Among the words Amelia spelled in the latter rounds of the bee were prosciutto, Wiccan, Mynheer, edelweiss and jnana.

Her prizes include a Webster's Third New International Dictionary; a savings bond from Jay Sugarman, CEO of iStar Financial; and, from The Roanoke Times, a $250 prize check and expenses-paid trip for two to Washington, D.C.

There, Amelia will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which begins May 31.

Saturday's competition was the last chance for second-place finisher Mattie to make the national bee.

She also represented the Smyth County school district in the 2009, 2008 and 2007 regional bees. But she'll be too old to compete next year.

But after the event, she predicted her younger brother has a decent chance to be Smyth County champion in 2011.

So, she added, "I might be back next year" -- to support him.