It only took four rounds to reduce the field to two at the Area 2 spelling bee last Wednesday; however, it took another 19 rounds and nearly two hours to declare the winner between Tommy Touch Carroll of Our Lady of Peace and Stephen Michael Havasy of North Augusta Elementary School.

Tommy was eventually declared the winner, while Michael came in second. Both boys will go on to the Aiken County School District spelling bee to be held on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. in the URS Performing Arts Center in Aiken. If, for any reason, either Tommy or Michael cannot attend the district bee, the alternate is Joyce Bernardino, who came in third. Joyce is a student at North Augusta Elementary School.

The words this year, acknowledged coordinator Felicia Walters, seemed particularly difficult. Even the caller, Kerry Jackson, found some of the words problematic.

But the final winners were undaunted. They plugged along, missing a few words along the way, but also spelling some very tricky ones.

On their way to success, the spellers encountered words such as "narcoleptic," "toxicosis," "curmudgeon," "decaffeinate," "doughtily" and "euphonious."

Tommy, whose winning words were "salami" and then "biopsy," said part of the secret to his success is, "I read a lot of books, and I can spell."

The OLP student's spelling coach may also be a factor. Cheryl Wahman, who teaches math at the school and has coached Tommy through two years of spelling bees, said her focus was not so much practicing the list of sample words provided by the Spelling Bee organization, but studying word origins. "For example," said Wahman, "I knew he would get 'mauve' once he realized it was a French word."

When Wahman turned to the student and asked him, knowing "mauve" was a French word, "what letter combinations are common in French?" He responded quickly, "au or ou." Wahman said studying word origins helps the speller recognize that certain letters and letter combinations pop up more often in certain languages.

Part of Tommy's habit is to take advantage of the options available. He can - and generally does - ask the caller to repeat the word, give its definition and origin and use it in a sentence, all before he begins the process of spelling the word. "It gives him time to evaluate the word from its origin and meaning," indicated Wahman. She laughed that at the OLP school spelling bee, Tommy Touch had taken some ribbing by the other students during the practice round. "I was using color words, and Tommy's was 'blue.'" She said, "He asked for a definition." But while the other students were amused by that, Wahman said he recognized the word could have been "blew," a homonym for "blue."

And his methodology seems to work for him. The sixth grader placed second in the Area 2 bee last year and went on to place third in the district bee.

Other spellers in this year's Area 2 spelling bee were David Mark Seymour and Ja'Mauris Quentrez Dre Walker, both students at Belvedere Elementary School; Anna Elizabeth Mercer and Nakya Madison Walls, Hammond Hill; Bridget Eden O'Hara and Ammario Bauknight, Mossy Creek; Mikayla Arionna Jenkins and Blake Elam, North Augusta Middle; Alexander Michael Gilles, OLP; Chandler Noe and Matthew Nash, Paul Knox Middle.

Judges for the Area 2 spelling bee were DARE Officer Tom Rogers, internal auditor Diane Saunders and North Augusta High School assistant principal Peter Kosko.