They ended co-winners when Jairam spelled “feldenkrais”, a method of education, and Nihar aced “gesellschaft”, a type of social relationship.
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The late-night duel twice saw Nihar fail to capitalise on mistakes by 13-year-old Jairam Hathwar, from New Yorker, and claim the title outright.
Scripps made the bee tougher after two consecutive ties, forcing the last two spellers to get through three times as many words as in years past.
Both he and Jairam will get a trophy and $45,000 (£30,700) in cash and prizes.
“I’m just speechless”, he said. “I’m only in fifth grade”.
Among the words they got right: Kjeldahl, Hohenzollern, juamave, groenedael, zindiq and euchologion.
Jairam attributed his success to his brother Sriram, who was 2014 co-champion.
The gifted 11-year-old Janga was crowned alongside 13-year-old Jairam Hathwar of Corning, New York, after an epic battle of 24 head-to-head rounds.
And if his name sounds familiar, it could be because this spelling bee has become a family tradition.
From “bailliage”, which refers to the authority of a medieval officer, to “kakiemon”, which is a Japanese decorated porcelain, spellers easily mastered a number of foreign tongue-twisters.
Google pulled data from its search trends to reveal the top word most people have trouble spelling in each state.
In addition to this, Sportscenter posted a Vine of spellers dabbing after spelling words correctly and it was absolutely wonderful. “If you both spell the next word correctly, you will be declared co-champions”. He said he just didn’t know the words.
About halfway through spelling his first word of the night – “myoclonus”, meaning an involuntary contraction of muscle – Cooper contorted his face and shook his head as if in doubt. After back-to-back years of co-champs, the Bee changed the rules to make it more hard to produce co-champs.
Both, too, want to be doctors: Jairam hopes to study medicine at Harvard, and Nihar aspires to be a neurosurgeon.
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So we may not be Scripps National Spelling Bee material, but at least we don’t have trouble spelling “gray”.
