Despite the frigid temperatures, the bees were buzzing over at Catasauqua Middle School for the annual spelling competition Jan. 9.

The whole school gathered to watch 37 students of various grades compete in front of a panel of three judges. The participating students were seated on the court of the gymnasium, while the other students filled the bleachers with a special section provided for parents. The tension in the crowd touched the gym’s ceiling as the program’s organizer, David Troxell, shuffled his papers and announced the first word - bobcat.

The spelling bee was first welcomed into the middle school back in 2001, making this its 19th trip through the halls. The rules have remained consistent - the speller is given one chance to spell the word.

Students are able to request a definition or the word in context; however, the speller is to start and finish the word without any interruption. When the competition trickles down to the final two, the speller must spell two words in a row correctly in order to be declared the winner.

As the competition continued, the words grew in complexity while the number of competitors shrunk in size. The final two, eighth-grader Sophia Becker and seventh-grader Cody Kurczeski, were revealed during the 10th round.

The two battled back and forth for more than 15 rounds before Cody claimed the champion title for the second year in a row. The winning word was impel.

The two competitors created history for the longest-running spelling bee for the middle school, lasting three hours and finishing at round 25.

Next, Cody will represent CMS in the regional bee, where he will navigate his way through the written round, set for Feb. 18 at Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Road, Bethlehem Township.

Cody continues his family’s spelling bee legacy. In addition to being the champion last year, he is the younger brother of Hannah Kurczeski, who was the 2017 spelling bee winner and 2018 runner-up.