Twenty-eight Charlotte-area students spelled hundreds of tricky, tongue-twisting words Monday, vying for the title of champion and a trip to the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee in June.

After the competitors worked through words from pueblo to dachshund, furlough to bezoar, gymkhana to Meiji, Prakash Mishra won The Charlotte Observer Regional Spelling Bee for the second year in a row.

His victory Monday at ImaginOn in uptown Charlotte was also the second time he won the Observer bee by correctly spelling a seven-letter word - "echelon" last year and "apsidal" this year.

Prakash, a 13-year-old Union County eighth-grader, advanced to the third round of the National Spelling Bee last year. Prakash stepped up his studying this year in preparation for another championship run, working on his spelling for at least an hour each day.

"This time, I prepared much more intensely," said the Marvin Ridge Middle School student. He said he focused more on memorizing words and getting them to really stick in his mind, rather than just looking at the words and their spellings.

The competitors, ages 9 to 14 and from 14 counties, spelled for more than two hours, their ranks slowly winnowed by words such as angstrom, peloton, bureaucracy, boudoir, poinsettia, sitzmark, erudite, begonia and quiche.

Each time one of the spellers missed a word, they were ushered offstage with the ring of a small bell, until only three remained.

Alison Roeth, an eighth-grader at Metrolina Regional Scholars' Academy in Charlotte, and Tanner Winchester, a seventh-grader who is home-schooled in Waxhaw, both misspelled their words, leaving Prakash a chance to win with the correct spelling of "apsidal."

"Are there any alternate pronunciations?" Prakash asked. No, said Taylor Batten, Observer editorial page editor and bee pronouncer.

"Language of origin?" Greek, which then passed into Latin.

"Can I have the definition?" Of or relating to the points of a celestial body's orbit at which the distance of the body from the center of attraction is either greatest or least.

With that, Prakash correctly spelled apsidal.

Later, Prakash said he's looking forward to another shot at the national title. "I'm excited to go back," Prakash said. Father Sanjay Mishra chimed in: "And win!"