The last few minutes of the Rome City Schools Spelling Bee came down to a contest between two students from the same school and the same class.

Lauren Murphy and John Knauss were the last left in the annual bee Tuesday morning at the Rome City

Schools central office. In the end, John was named champion for the second year in a row.

The two finalists are in the same sixth-grade class at West End Elementary School.

“It was nerve-racking,” Lauren said. John was the winner of the school’s spelling bee, and Lauren was the alternate.

The two both missed several words including “reminisce,” “silhouette” and “spontaneity.”

But John was able to correctly spell “laborious,” which Lauren misspelled, and he went on to correctly spell “upholstery” to take the championship.

Both had their own techniques for preparing.

“I have this giant dictionary at home. It’s like second edition,” John said. “I just sat and researched words in it.”

Lauren studied and asked her family for help.

“I tried to study a little bit every night, and I had my dad and my parents and my sisters give me quizzes and give me the hardest words they could think of,” she said.

John will go on to compete in the District Spelling Bee, which will be at the Floyd County Schools Central Office on Feb. 23.

Others participating in the bee and their schools:

 East Central Elementary: Ellie Hunter, school winner. and T.J. Dupree, alternate.

 Elm Street Elementary: Alexa Munoz, school winner, and Trenyanna Allen, alternate.

 Main Elementary: Brenden Smothers, school winner, and Stephano Green, alternate.

 North Heights Elementary: Yavonnie Stewart, school winner. Teddy Collins was the school’s alternate but did not participate in the bee.

 Rome Middle School: Mason Hunter, school winner, and Grace Byrd, alternate.

 Southeast Elementary School: Tyra Thompson, school winner, and Eric Conner, alternate.

 West Central Elementary: Ibeth Cisneros, school winner, and Shaunterria Nelson, alternate.