Two Lawrence middle-school students won first place and runner-up in the Douglas County Spelling Bee Saturday at Southwest Middle School.

Peter Westbrook, 12, of Bishop Seabury Academy, won first place by correctly spelling the word “fusillade” — “that’s a bunch of things coming at once,” he said. Peter said he likes competition and is excited about the win.

“It was great,” he said. “It felt really good.”

His mom quizzed him almost daily on the study list of 1,150 words in the weeks leading up to the county bee, he said. Some days he studied multiple hours, but estimated he averaged about 30 minutes of studying per day.

“Studying for a spelling bee is an extremely gradual process that can only be done by doing it a little bit every day,” Peter said.

Amanda Earnhart, 12, of Liberty Memorial Central Middle School won runner-up. Amanda said she was surprised and excited to have done so well.

“When I first got in there, my goal was just not to get out in the first round,” Amanda said. “I didn’t think I’d get runner-up.”

Amanda said she decided to compete in her class spelling bee because in elementary school she always did well on her spelling tests, so she thought, “Why not?”

“It’s something that started off small and just kept getting bigger,” Amanda said.

Both Amanda and Peter advance to the regional tournament in Topeka, where spellers will compete for a chance to spell at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

Since 2012, two Lawrence students have gone from the Douglas County bee to the Scripps competition: Emma Steimle from West Middle School in 2012, and Ethan Perrins from Southwest in 2014.

The Journal-World has sponsored the Douglas County bee since 2009.