It started with 19 Clark County students, all from fourth through eighth grades.

At the end, St. Agatha Academy students Roman Cheney won his first Clark County District Spelling Bee with a little work and a lot of guessing.

Cheney made it to the fifth, and ultimately final, round Wednesday morning with fellow St. Agatha student Evan Richards.

When Richards missed ‘pongee,’ Cheney was given ‘bipartite’ to spell. It was the hardest word he’d had in the competition, he said.

“I just sounded it out in my head and (did) some guessing,” he said. About half of his answer was a guess, he said.

Cheney said he didn’t prepare much for the bee.

“I didn’t expect to win,” he said.

His win was also the third consecutive win for St. Agatha, spelling bee coordinator Susan Hillman said.

Now, Cheney will advance to the state spelling bee in Louisville March 14 as Clark County’s representative.

The full bee took about 20 minutes to complete, with about two-thirds of the field not advancing beyond the first round with words words like dragnet, dreary, receipt, tutored, auspicious, embargo and sapphire. Later rounds saw offerings like rhombus, capitalization and spelunker eliminate more competitors.