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Austin Wierschke captures second straight fastest texter title

It's official - Austin Wierschke has the fastest thumbs in America. Again.

Wierschke, a 17-year-old student from Rhinelander, Wisconsin, beat out 10 other competitors to capture the sixth annual U.S. LG National Texting Competition in Times Square Wednesday. Wierschke also took the crown last year.

The competition tested texters on their speed, accuracy and dexterity on four separate challenges: spelling out text abbreviations, texting while blindfolded, texting phrases as quickly as they could and decoding jumbled words.

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All contestants used the same type of cellphone, an LG Optimus Zip phone with QWERTY keyboard. The contest was sponsored by LG.

For his trouble, Wierschke won $50,000. He plans to use this year's winnings and last year's $50,000 to pay for college.

Sixteen-year-old Kent Augustine of Queens, New York, got $10,000 for finishing in second place.

And how did Wierschke train for the competition? By sending 500 texts a day to friends.

"I may have annoyed them a little but that's OK, they helped me practice and it pays off, I guess," Wierschke told NPR.

Sounds like he'll need to use a portion of that $50 grand to pay his phone bills.