Benton County has a new spelling bee champion.
The final two contestants went back-and-forth for 10 rounds until Aryan Rai correctly spelled "macron" to win the title Saturday. The competition had 32 participants between first and eighth grade and lasted 19 rounds at the Shewmaker Center at Northwest Arkansas Community College.
Rai is a sixth-grade student at Bright Field Middle School in Bentonville. Pavani Chittemsetty, a first-grader at Mary Mae Jones Elementary in Bentonville, was the runner-up.
"You get to go to the next level and you just feel good since you won it," Rai said.