Rockdale Citizen

Staff Photo: Sue Ann Kuhn Smith Seventh-grader Jazz Duncan, from Memorial Middle School, right, beat her fifth-grade sister Zora, from Flat Shoals Elementary School, in the Rockdale County Spelling Bee on Tuesday morning. The eldest sister also won the county Spelling Bee last year and went on to place fourth in the state competition.

CONYERS -- You could call it sibling rivalry, but competing in the county Spelling Bee was more of a bonding moment for two sisters this week.

Seventh-grader Jazz Duncan, from Memorial Middle School, and her fifth-grade sister Zora, from Flat Shoals Elementary School, faced off in the Rockdale County Spelling Bee on Tuesday morning.

After 30 rounds of spelling -- including 25 just between the two of them -- Jazz became the victor by correctly spelling the word "erasable" after Zora spelled it wrong; she followed up by spelling "abduction" for the win. She also won the county competition last year.

"I feel pretty good," said Jazz Duncan, who went on to place fourth in the state Spelling Bee last year. "I thought she was going to beat me."

And if Zora was the winner, Jazz would have been fine with that too, she said. But their older brother might not have been.

Their dad, David, said brother Jaire, a student at the Magnet School for Science and Technology who has competed in the state Spelling Bee competition twice over the past few years, would have been mad if Jazz allowed Zora to beat her.

"I like to see a healthy competition between the children," their mom, Heather, said. "They motivate each other."

Even though it was Zora's goal to beat her big sister this year, she's happy with the runner- up finish.

"She's a really good speller," Zora said about her sister. "I kind of got scared after a while -- I thought this could go on forever."

They nearly breezed through many of the spelling rounds -- correctly spelling words like "gouge," "fluoride," "cellophane," "mezzanine," "extemporaneous," "stroganoff" and "tutelage" -- but it was a close call three times for the sisters.

In round three, their mom protested the pronunciation of the word "phylum" that Zora heard as "file" and repeated back to the caller as such; she wasn't corrected and spelled it, but was initially called out of the competition for not spelling the correct word.

"I was happy that (my mom) would (protest) that for me," Zora said.

It kept her in the competition -- after a few minutes, the judges sided with the Duncan family and gave Zora another word to spell.

In round 24, Jazz misspelled "ghastly," which Zora correctly spelled, but she was unable to correctly spell "docent" for the win. Then in round 29, both girls failed to correctly spell "lectern," so the competition continued.

"I'm extremely proud of them," their dad said.

Duncan will go on to compete at the District 5 Spelling Bee at Mundy's Mill Middle School in Clayton County later this month.

For now, she and her sisters will continue studying together and with their brothers, which also includes brother David.

"They all work together," their dad said.

Even though Jaire is in high school, and therefore no longer eligible to compete in spelling bees, he still assists.

"He's not really studying, but he does help," Zora said.

Jazz also won the state spelling competition for the National Beta Society in November and will compete in the national competition in June in North Carolina. Jaire placed fourth in the nation at that competition last year.