PAINTED POST, N.Y.(WENY)--  After many months of preparation and dedication, 60 students gathered from around the southern tier at Corning-Painted Post Middle School for the 17th annual Scripps Regional Spelling Bee. The age range for todays competition ranged from 3rd to 8th grade. Spelling is the name of the game, but this competition has a little more added complexity. 
    
"Rounds 1-5 are all spelling rounds and then in between each, every five rounds, round five, round ten, round fifteen, are vocabulary rounds where the students will get a word and they have to choose between one of the definitions of what it could be and then move on to the next spelling round after that,"says Justin Mucitelli, Assistant Principle of Corning-Painted Post Middle School

A lot of hard work and hours studying go into preparation for this competition, so emotions run high for not only the student but also the family members in attendance. 

"There's a lot of drama here, you know there's such a range of emotions on display, from pure joy when they get a word right to tears when they misspell a word," says Richard Pope, Founder and Master of  Ceremonies for the Regional Scripps.

After over 11 rounds of competition, a winner finally came out victorious. At just 13 years old, Anh Thu Tran of Big Flatts took home the trophy today. 

"It feels really great because I've been competing here at the regional bee for a really long time so I'm just really happy that I finally won," says Anh Thu Tran, Winner. 

Anh said that she is going to be putting in at least 3 hours of studying a day to prepare for her next competition in May.