Cool, calm and collected, Hope Middle School student and reining Downeast North Carolina Regional Spelling Bee champion Lauren Lim was the last contestant to walk off the stage on Saturday, earning her a spot in the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.

Lim, 14, spelled “efficacy” correctly to take home last year’s title. This time around, pronouncer John Tate projected the final and bee-clinching word of the evening that left the eighth grader the last student standing on stage. “Astral,” an adjective meaning to come from the stars, was effortlessly spelled by Lim, who walked away a champion once again.

Seventh grader Carson Creef from Manteo Middle School secured a second-place finish for the second-consecutive year as well. Cape Hatteras Elementary School’s young speller, 10-year-old Peyton Cabral, took third-place honors.

For a little over three hours, 47 knowledgeable scholars battled it out on the Washington High School auditorium stage, spelling onerous worlds like “mahi-mahi” and “gunnysack.” There were 40 North Carolina elementary and middle schools represented at the 20-round competition.

Former educator and current Washington Daily News columnist Bartow Houston introduced each speller and the school they represented in the early rounds, as judge Cornell McGill followed each attempted spelling with either a “correct” or, for the not-so-luck ones, “incorrect.” As the day progressed, the three rows full of students withered down ever so gradually until just a handful were remaining.

There were seven Beaufort County spellers representing Beaufort County instutitions: Thomas Wilson from Bath Elementary, Mattew Pitt from Chocowinity Middle School, Shawn Gerard from Chocowinity Primary School, Memphis Slade-Credle from Northeast Elementary, Ben Morris from P.S. Jones, Josh Lewis from S.W. Snowden Elementary and Mary Emma Olscher from John Small Elementary.

The Washington Daily News and PotashCorp-Aurora cosponsored the event.