SHE DID IT AGAIN!!

Yesterday Cheyenne competed in the Cochise County Spelling Bee, and won it for the second year in a row! It was actually her third competition at the county level--in 2008 (fifth grade) she came in 3rd place, last year she won it, and this year she won again. Here's how it went down:

Round 1: Cheyenne was #8. She spelled "Capricorn." 10 spellers were eliminated.

Round 2: Cheyenne spelled "acronym." 4 more were eliminated.

Round 3: Cheyenne spelled "clapboard." 2 spellers went out.

Round 4: Cheyenne spelled "adjacent." 5 more spellers down.

Round 5: Cheyenne spelled "kitsch." 2 more eliminated.

Round 6: Cheyenne spelled "vigilante." 1 speller down.

Round 7: Cheyenne spelled "cachet." 2 spellers went out, leaving only herself and an 8th grader.

The two of them went back and forth for 9 more rounds!! Cheyenne's words were "amicable," "barrio," "samurai," "ghoul," "peloton," "allegro,"
"impetuous," "epiphany," and "camphor." In the 16th Round, her opponent missed "azimuth." Cheyenne's final word was "precocious," and she spelled it right and won! She will go to the State Spelling Bee at ASU campus in Tempe on March 27. Last year she came in at #11--hopefully she'll do better this year.

The story was in the Sierra Vista Herald this morning--here it is.

By Adam Curtis
Herald/Review
SIERRA VISTA — After one of the most heated one-on-one battles in recent memory, a precocious smile widened across St. David seventh-grader Cheyenne Davis’ face as she heard the final word she would have to spell and realized that she was going to win the Cochise County Spelling Bee for the second year in a row.

“I knew that word, I studied that one really hard, so it’s just kind of funny I got that one,” Davis said. The final word was “precocious,” an appropriate description for a student who exhibited a competitive maturity beyond her years by outlasting San Simon Middle School eighth-grader Cody Nguyen in a 17-round marathon at Buena High School on Saturday.

After beating out the largest field of competitors in the last four years, the two young spellers nailed eight words each before Nguyen finally found his match in the word, “azimuth.” “I never heard of azimuth. I don’t think I even studied it,” Nguyen said. He had been poring over 50 words a day for the past month in preparation for the competition, though he admitted the homonyms were the trickiest part because he did not study the definitions closely.

His brother, Justin, placed third in the county spelling bee last year, even though he only had one week to study because he was his school’s runner up and the winner dropped out shortly before the competition, said Christine Nguyen, their mother. Cody did most of the work on his own and had to learn a list of between 1,200 and 1,500 words for the spelling bee. “He did an excellent job,” Christine said. “I feel that he had some very long words with many letters throughout the entire competition.”

Cody did a fantastic job, making an always nerve-racking experience even more intense, said Braden Davis, Cheyenne’s father. “When it came down to those two, I thought it could go either way.”

“I can’t breathe when she’s up there, I just hold my breath until she’s done,” said Melanie Davis, Cheyenne’s mother. She could tell Cody had studied a lot and ultimately luck plays a big factor, especially when it’s that close.

Melanie had made her flash cards that she studied throughout the day as she walked around, Cheyenne said. She placed 11th out of 27 at the state competition last year and plans on studying a little more so she can do even better this year when she competes in Phoenix on March 27. “She spells much better than me, that’s for sure,” Braden said. “We sometimes have little spelling competitions at home and she creams us.”

There were several words he would have misspelled on Saturday but his daughter was ready, Braden said. “Kitsch, I would have missed that one.” That was a word Cheyenne actually kept misspelling at home because she kept adding an “e” to the end of it, she said.

“We’re extremely proud of her,” Braden said. “Being around spelling bees for awhile, since she’s been doing this, I find myself rooting for everybody, I don’t want anybody to miss a word that they know.” It’s all right if they miss a word that just "kicks their tail" but he feels bad if they know the word but just miss it because their nerves get to them, Braden said.

Cheyenne had to beat out her younger sister to get the county bee this year and will face her in her school competition again next year.