OXON HILL, Md. — For the second year in a row, Colorado eighth-grader Sylvie Lamontagne outlasted nearly 300 competitors to make the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, ultimately finishing in fourth place Thursday night by knocking down tongue twisters from “comitatus” to “shubunkin” to “ptyalism.”

Her shot at the trophy was undone in the 15th round, however, by “chaoborine,” a type of gnat.

Just before 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, a lengthy duel between the last two spellers —Nihar Janga, 11, of Texas, and Jairam Hathwar, 13, of New York — ended in a tie. The winners will each receive a trophy and more than $42,000 in cash and prizes.

“We’re very proud,” said Sylvie’s mother Suzanne McClung, a high school chemistry teacher. “She’s just done so well. She has put in an immense amount of work and it’s definitely paid off.”

Pete Marovich Cameron Keith, 10, of Boulder, CO, participates in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Cliff Owen, The Associated Press Sylvie Lamontagne, 13, from Lakewood, correctly spells her word during the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Md., Thursday, May 26, 2016.

Alex Wong, Getty Images Cameron Keith of Longmont, Colorado, participates in round two of the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee May 25, 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland. Students from across the country gathered to compete for top honor of the annual spelling championship.



Alex Wong, Getty Images Cameron Keith, center, of Longmont, celebrates with another speller after he correctly spelled his word in round three of the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 25, 2016 in National Harbor, Md.

Before the finals, which were broadcast live by ESPN, Sylvie described the whole Bee experience as a rush — both good and bad. “It’s scary and it’s fun at the same time,” said Sylvie, a 13-year-old from Creighton Middle School in Lakewood.

To prepare, she said she would spend hours studying on a computer program called Quizlet — sometimes testing herself for as long as 12 hours on a Saturday, though “obviously making exceptions for the times I have a lot of homework,” she said.

And breaks for Harry Potter too. She’s an avid fan of the series and her favorite movie is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

Her hard work paid off. She improved on her 2015 performance, where she finished tied for ninth place after missing her first word in the primetime finale. Since then, she said she’s made a point of trying to better recognize root words to give herself an edge when trying to find the right spelling.

“I’m hoping to, at the very least, to get my first word right,” she said beforehand. Sylvie was one of 70 spellers this year with prior national Bee experience. One competitor, Zander Reed of Iowa, has qualified four times for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Her showing this week is part of a long line of strong performances by Colorado spellers. A student from the state has snagged the national title seven times: 1957, 1959, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1989 and 2002. One of those, 1980 champion Jacques Bailly, has become the public face of the Scripps National Spelling Bee as its official pronouncer.

Colorado was well-represented this year too. Not only did Sylvie take fourth place, but she was joined in the final day of the three-day competition by Cameron Keith.

The 10-year-old from Friends’ School Boulder was the youngest competitor last year in the entire Bee. This year, the fourth-grader was one of 45 students to make it to Day 3 but in the fifth round earlier on Thursday he couldn’t quite get “noncompos” when he substituted an “A” for the final “O.”

Before that, he nailed the word “solenoglyphous,” which means having tubular fangs that can be raised into an upright position. After getting it, he high-fived some of the other spellers onstage.

“Congratulations to CO’s Cameron Keith for making it all the way to the 5th round of the @ScrippsBee #spellingbee finals. You did great!” tweeted U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Once a novelty competition, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has morphed into a major event with two days of television broadcasts and a temporary home at National Harbor, a Maryland resort development located just outside Washington D.C.

The field this year included more than 280 spellers from across the country – and a few from destinations such as the Bahamas and South Korea. Most were middle-schoolers in seventh and eighth grade but a few were even younger, including 6-year-old Akash Vukoti of San Angelo, Texas.