Michael and Jennifer O'Dorney congratulate their son, Evan, on his victory in the national spelling bee. Evan's winning word was "serrefine," which, according to dictionary.com, is a noun meaning "small spring forceps used for approximating the edges of a wound."

WASHINGTON — Having spelled "serrefine" to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Evan O'Dorney is ready to tackle an even more unusual challenge for a 13-year-old boy.

"In the fall," said his mother, Jennifer, "he'll be taking calculus."

Evan, a home-schooled eighth-grader from Danville, Calif., breezed through the competition Thursday night to become the nation's top speller. He said he knew the winning word — a noun describing small forceps — the moment the pronouncer said it, but he was more enthusiastic when he spoke about an upcoming math camp this summer and the calculus class he'll be taking at the University of California at Berkeley.

"My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together," he said. "And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes — and the spelling is just a bunch of memorization."

Evan won a tense duel with Nate Gartke of Spruce Grove, Alberta, who was attempting to become the first Canadian to win the 80th annual bee. Evan and Nate went head-to-head for three rounds, matching each other's correct spellings until Nate flubbed the medical word "coryza" by adding the letter "h."

Until then, Nate had been quite the showman, waving celebrity-like to the audience after each word and basking in the cheers from a row that waved red-and-white maple leaf flags.