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It was one of the longest seventh- and eighth-grade spelling bees organizers can remember.
But after 18 rounds, Suraj Datta emerged victorious. Josh Nifong was runner-up.
Seven students met Tuesday at First United Methodist Church for the second stage of the Kosciusko County Spelling Bee.
The first words missed were "levee" and "monstrosity," but for the next several rounds contestants breezed through such words as "truncated," "unanimous" and "exultantly."
Finally, Michelle Kerkhoff, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, missed "caucus"; Ashley Dirck, Edgewood Middle School, misspelled "brocade"; and last year's overall champion, Tyler Petty, of Home School Friends, was eliminated by misspelling "whiff."
In the final round, Nifong, a seventh-grader at Triton Junior-Senior High School, misspelled "paisley," and Datta, an eighth-grader at Lakeview Middle School, spelled it correctly.
To hold onto his win, Datta also spelled "parochial" correctly.
Tonight, Datta will compete with Monday's winner, Ashley Wireman, of Washington Elementary, in the final contest that will be broadcast live on WRSW AM and FM at 7 p.m.
The winner of tonight's competition will go to Fort Wayne to compete in March, and could end up at national finals in Washington, D.C.
As last night's winner, Datta received a Richard Long Scholarship of $2,500, which will be held in trust for him until he graduates high school.
Judges for the seventh- and eighth-grade bee were Sherrill Plummer and Kathleen McCoy, teachers from Lakeview Middle School.
Patricia Deck, Lakeview principal, is this year's bee coordinator.
