SIERRA VISTA — Lieutenant: An official empowered to act for a higher official.

It was also the word Paige Blancett conquered to win the 2008 Cochise County Spelling Bee Saturday.

Thirty-two champion spellers from schools across Cochise County competed for the top spot Saturday at Buena High School.

After a practice round to ease the students nerves the spelling and misspellings were underway.

When 20 contestants were eliminated in the first round, Superintendent Trudy Berry knew it was going to be a tough competition.

“The words this year were very difficult,” Berry said.

Finalists won their school competitions by spelling renaissance, angst, confetti and lithe to name a few, but those words weren’t in the county spelling bee.

This year individual schools were given different word lists for the schoolwide competitions than the one used Saturday so students weren’t already exposed to the words in a competition setting, said Susan Arndt, Cochise County Schools Spelling Bee coordinator.

The new format comes from the E.W. Scripps Company, which administers the Scripps National Spelling Bee, for a more challenging competition, Arndt said.

“It put all the students on the same level,” Berry said, though students ranged from second to eighth grade and from charter, public, private and home schools.

Eventually the competition came down to three: Cheyenne Davis, a fifth-grade student from St. David Amanda Nguyen, a fifth-grade student from Pueblo del Sol Elementary School and Blancett, an eighth-grade student from Palominas Elementary School.

The three went round after round, spelling with amazing accuracy, said Elaine Carlson, assistant principal of Buena High School and pronouncer for the competition.

Judge Ann Littrell, presiding juvenile judge for the county and one of the competition judges, said she was very impressed how they handled the difficult vocabulary.

“The kids worked so hard,” she said.

As the students spelled the judges checked to see if they were correct according to the word lists and a dictionary.

“I’d look down and think ‘I’m so glad I didn’t have to spell them,’ ” Littrell said.

When Nguyen and Blancett were the last remaining contestants, Nguyen misspelled klompen before Blancett spelled lieutenant to win.

She knew how to spell it because she remembered reading it in a book, Blancett said.

“It felt really good to win. I didn’t really expect it though,” she said.

Although Nguyen was ill with a high temperature in the past few days she didn’t want to miss the competition for her school, said her mother Phuong Tran.

Her daughter was initially sad she won second place because she is competitive, Tran said, but she thought her daughter was wonderful. “We’ve always been proud of her,” she said.

Because Tran and her husband speak English as a second language it was difficult for them to help her study, but Nguyen was able to get help from family friends, Tran said.

Nguyen said she studied hard for the competition.

“I think you really have to keep at it and work at it if you really want to do something,” Nguyen said.

The competition has made her a better speller in school, she said. She was glad she did it and hopes to learn even more words and return to the spelling bee next year.

Blancett will compete at the state level, March 29, in the 2008 Arizona Educational Foundation Spelling Bee. The event will be 1 p.m. at the KAET-Channel 8 Studios at Arizona State University Main Campus in Tempe. The winner of the state competition will compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. this May.

“It’s kind of overwhelming but I think I can handle it,” Blancett said.