Can you spell ‘taken by surprise’? That’s what happened to organizers of a Jackson County, Missouri spelling bee, after it went on longer than anticipated and they ran out of words.

Can you spell ‘taken by surprise’?

That’s what happened to organizers of a Jackson County, Missouri spelling bee, after it went on longer than anticipated and they ran out of words.

In their defense, the event endured for an epic amount of time.

When it started there were 25 contestants. By the time 19 rounds had come and gone there were only two contestants left standing.

They were Kush Sharma, aged 13 and hailing from Kansas City and Sophia Hoffman, an 11-year-old from suburban Lee’s Summit.

The two battled it out for 47 rounds and by that time the bee officials had nearly exhausted the entire list of words they’d been supplied by the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Last year’s battle was settled after only 21 turns.

During a lunch break, the judges chose 20 additional words out of the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, 11th Edition.

After 66 rounds, both the original and the back-up lists had been exhausted and no victor had yet been named, so organizers decided to call it a day.

The competition resumes on March 8th, and the winner will go on to the national competition in Washington DC.