BARSTOW — They correctly spelled lederhosen, admiral, lieutenant and pneumatic. But the word that won it all was precocious.

The word, meaning unusually advanced or mature in development, especially in mental development, fits Ezekiel Haenelt, 11, pretty well. Haenelt, a sixth grader at Barstow Intermediate School, won this year’s regional spelling bee by spelling out p-r-e-c-o-c-i-o-u-s.

Twenty-three of the regions’ best student spellers from the Silver Valley and Barstow schools participated in the bee, held at the First Baptist Church on Thursday night.

Haenelt said he studied two to three hours each week to prepare for the contest. As he spelled the winning word, his mind was a blur, he said.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said. “I was too nervous.”

Though he was nervous, Haenelt said he was happy that the word he dreaded, soliloquy, didn’t come up.

Haenelt will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee held on May 29 and 30 in Washington, D.C. The regional bee is sponsored by the Desert Dispatch, which will pay for Haenelt and one parent to go to the national contest.

The second and third place finishers in the bee, Christopher Albritton and Sharon Kim, will also receive prizes.

Don Cross, the bee’s coordinator said that he thinks that the event is growing in popularity among students.

“What I’ve noticed, a lot more of them were better prepared this year,” he said. “I think more of them are really studying for it.”

He said that in the contests leading up to this year’s regional bee, spellers lasted through more rounds of words than in previous years.

“That makes it more interesting for everybody,” he said. “You never know who’s going to win.”

Last year’s regional winner, Brandy McCurdy, then a Barstow Junior High seventh-grade competed in the first and second rounds of the national bee in Washington.

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