Miss UF walked off the Miss Florida pageant stage on June 21 with a crown and a smile that could light up a room, but after five days, the crown was no longer hers.
On Thursday night, the Miss Florida pageant officials visited 20-year-old Elizabeth Fechtel at her home in Leesburg to inform her that she was not the real winner of the Miss Florida crown, according to a press release.
The real winner of this year’s pageant is 21-year-old Victoria Cowen, a student at Florida State University.
The mixup was related to an error in the vote count of the judges’ final scores.
Fechtel was notified as soon as everything had been verified and confirmed by an independent auditing firm, said Miss Florida executive director Mary Sullivan.
The mistake was due to a judge changing his mind on his score sheet, which wasn’t noticed in the initial counting of the scores, according to the Miss America Organization’s statement posted on its blog and Facebook page.
Although Fechtel couldn’t be reached for comment, she wrote in a blog post that both the Miss America and Miss Florida organizations made the right and fair decision of contacting the rightful winner in her case.
“I could not be more proud of Elizabeth for how she has represented the Miss University of Florida pageant and the University of Florida as a whole,” said Miss UF Pageant Executive Director Leslie Morgan in an email. “She has handled a trying situation with poise, dignity and grace and has exemplified all that Miss UF should embody and more.”
Despite being dethroned for Miss Florida, Fechtel still holds the Miss UF crown.
She will continue to make appearances and work with Florida Blue Key and the Miss UF Pageant and promote her platform that encourages community leadership in students, Morgan said.
Morgan said Fechtel’s next appearance on campus is scheduled for the beginning of the Fall semester.
“I was Miss Florida for a glimpse, but more importantly, I have been Elizabeth Fechtel since day one,” Fechtel wrote on her blog. “A title does not define me. It opens doors, but it does not dictate who I am and where I am going.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 7/1/2014 under the headline "Miss UF dethroned as Miss Florida, loses to FSU student"]
