UF student Elizabeth Fechtel was planning to take the next academic year off. 
 
 After Elizabeth Fechtel was crowned Miss Florida 2014 on Saturday, sorority sisters gushed on social media. Several news outlets interviewed the Leesburg native. Fechtel called the pageant life-changing, saying she was “privileged and thrilled to have become Miss Florida.” 
 
 The excitement was short-lived. 
 
 Late Thursday, pageant officials visited Fechtel to inform her of a massive error: The crown should’ve gone to the first runner-up instead. 
 
 The Miami-based organization released a press release Friday saying that a tabulation mistake resulted in the title being awarded to Fechtel instead of runner-up Victoria Cowen. 
 
 Fechtel planned to take a year off from her studies at the University of Florida to prepare for the Miss America Pageant, according to the Orlando Sentinel. 
 
 The university shared a congratulatory message on Twitter and sent out a press release. By Friday evening, the statement was updated to reflect the pageant error. But the Miss Florida website still showed Fechtel next to a sparkling “Miss Florida” graphic. 
 
 Florida isn’t the only state making news for pageant blunders. 
 
 Amanda Longacre, Miss Delaware, had her title revoked Tuesday because she turns 25 in October, which violates Miss America rules. Participants cannot turn 25 before the end of 2014. 
 
 While Longacre will reportedly keep the $9,000 in scholarship money she received with the crown, the Tampa Bay Times reports that Fechtel will have to give her scholarship winnings to Cowen. 
 
 The national pageant will be held in Atlantic City, N.J. Calls to the pageant’s president and executive director Mary E. Sullivan weren't returned as of Friday afternoon. 
 
 Late Friday, the Miss America organization shared a headshot of Cowen on its Facebook page and congratulated her on her new title. 
 
 “We thank Elizabeth Fechtel and wish her the very best,” the post adds. 
 
 Further down, there’s a post with nearly 3,000 likes from earlier in the week — a smiling portrait of Fechtel. 
 
 The caption reads, “Congratulations to Elizabeth Fechtel on being crowned Miss Florida 2014!” ||||| Days after she was crowned Miss Florida, Leesburg resident Elizabeth Fechtel learned the title has been taken away because of a tabulating error. 
 
 Losing the crown means Fechtel won't be able to compete in the Miss America pageant. 
 
 The Miss Florida Scholarship Organization, which puts on the Miss Florida pageant, said Friday that an independent review and audit of the scores awarded by the judges found that the first runner-up, Victoria Cowen of Panama City, had the top overall score at last weekend's pageant in St. Petersburg. 
 
 Elizabeth Fechtel's mother said the pageant director visited the family Thursday night to relay the news. They were told that in the last 15 seconds of the time allotted to vote, one judge drew lines to reverse his vote from Elizabeth, a 20-year-old University of Florida student, to Cowen, Dixie Fechtel said. 
 
 "We're still kind of processing everything," she said. "We were disappointed that she wasn't notified earlier because it was required for her to not be in school and college. So she had to drop all her classes this week." 
 
 Elizabeth Fechtel couldn't be reached for comment, but earlier in the week said she was "completely elated for all that is to come…" 
 
 In a related development, Amanda Longacre lost her crown as Miss Delaware this week after the pageant discovered she violated the age requirement. Pageant rules say Miss Delaware contestants must be no older than 24 and cannot turn 25 before the end of the year. Longacre's 25th birthday is Oct. 22. 
 
 She said on Friday she had provided her birth certificate, drivers license and other documents with her pageant application. 
 
 "I did absolutely nothing wrong and I want to make that clear," Longacre said. 
 
 In Florida, Mary Sullivan, executive director of the pageant Elizabeth Fechtel thought she had won, said any scholarships associated with preliminary competitions that Fechtel won will still be awarded to her. 
 
 "It was a human error," Sullivan said. "We have two auditors…but they unfortunately missed one of the markings on the ballot." 
 
 The Miss Florida Scholarship Organization released a statement that said "to protect the integrity of the Miss Florida Scholarship Organization it is imperative to make sure that the contestant who received the highest overall score is officially named the winner…" 
 
 Fechtel said her daughter, who was crowned Miss University of Florida earlier this year, is holding her head up and is proud of all the contestants. 
 
 Her daughter also won the Miss Leesburg title in 2010 and Miss America's Outstanding Teen in 2012. 
 
 "She's a very accomplished young woman and she's going to proceed to do bigger and better things," she said. "She's of course disappointed, but she's going to move forward." 
 
 The pageant awards the winner more than $19,000 in scholarship funds. Cowen will move on to compete in the Miss America pageant Sept. 14 in Atlantic City, N.J. If she wins, she will become the third Florida contestant to win the national crown. 
 
 Hanna Marcus of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report, which also includes information from Reuters. jomaye@tribune.com or 352-742-5917 ||||| In a cross between Miss Congeniality and "Dewey Defeats Truman," the Miss Florida pageant has a real oops moment on its hands. 
 
 The pageant announced Friday that someone miscounted the beans and crowned the wrong woman, forcing officials to dethrone the winner named last week in St. Petersburg. 
 
 After holding the title of Miss Florida for just six days, Elizabeth Fechtel of Leesburg has been replaced by first runnerup Victoria Cowen of Panama City. Cowen gets to advance to the Miss America pageant Sept. 14 in Atlantic City. 
 
 "Elizabeth has changed her life all around in these last five or six days," said her father, Vince Fechtel Jr. 
 
 Fechtel, 20, had withdrawn from the University of Florida to compete for Miss America, her father said. At school, she was a student senator and a recruitment chairwoman for her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi. 
 
 Fechtel comes from a well-connected family with ties to the Tampa Bay area. Her father is a former legislator who served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate in the 1970s and '80s. He was good friends and fishing buddies with the late Bill McBride, who, he said, was Fechtel's godfather. He said they had shared the news about the Miss Florida mix-up with McBride's wife, Alex Sink, on Friday. Fechtel's brother owns the Fechtel Co., a high-end home builder based in Lutz. 
 
 During the days of competition leading up to the June 21 crowning, Cowen and Fechtel, aka Miss University of Florida, had battled it out in preliminary rounds, both taking honors for swimsuit modeling and dancing. By the end of the week, Fechtel had claimed top honors, taking a victory lap down the stage at the Mahaffey Theater. 
 
 She began her media tour — talking to hometown newspapers and TV stations, writing a glowing thank-you note on her Facebook page, calling the win "life changing." On Friday afternoon, she was still pictured on the pageant's Facebook page, standing amid her competitors, beaming in a black mesh and sequined gown and, of course, the crown. 
 
 But it couldn't last. Pageant officials came to Fechtel's home and delivered the news Thursday evening. 
 
 "Just like me and her mother, she was extremely upset, for a lot of different reasons," Vince Fechtel said. "We were very concerned that it be clear that Elizabeth did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing, and she had spent all this time working. We were very distraught." 
 
 After getting the news, the family prayed and Fechtel called Cowen to congratulate her. The two women are friends who have spent time together in the pageant world. Scholarship money that Fechtel won, which her family said was in the thousands, will now go to Cowen. 
 
 The family says it was told that one of the judges changed his mind while scoring first and second place on the night of the pageant and that "in the last 15 seconds of the time allotted to vote, that he drew lines to reverse his first vote," mother Dixie Fechtel wrote in an email. 
 
 By Friday, word was getting out that Fechtel wasn't the actual winner. Reached by phone Friday afternoon, the pageant's president and executive director, Mary E. Sullivan, directed attention to a news release. 
 
 The statement cited an "error in the tabulation process." An independent review and audit of the scores confirmed that Cowen actually had the highest score. 
 
 The statement called the situation "highly unfortunate" but said the move was necessary to protect the integrity of the organization. 
 
 The Fechtel family says it doesn't bear any ill will toward the Miss Florida pageant and believes everything it has been told. The family wishes Fechtel had been told sooner, but said the auditors needed time to confirm the outcome. 
 
 Fechtel was studying political science, entrepreneurship and mass communications at UF. She likes underwater photography and has worked as a student reporter at the school TV station. 
 
 "She's a very capable, all-around accomplished young lady," Vince Fechtel said. "I mean, she's my daughter, and I've got to say, I'm just astonished. … Don't worry about Elizabeth. She'll do quite well." 
 
 On her website, she lists favorite quotes. Among them: 
 
 Be stubborn about your goals, yet flexible about your methods. 
 
 Stephanie Hayes can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 893-8716. Follow @stephhayes.
– Florida has just one-upped Delaware in the beauty-pageant gaffe department: The Miss Florida pageant crowned the wrong winner last Saturday because of a vote-counting error and has had to make an embarrassing about-face, reports the Miami Herald. The pageant initially named Elizabeth Fechtel its winner, and the 20-year-old University of Florida student basked in the glory for all of five days, until a pageant official arrived at her house Thursday evening to inform her that first runner-up Victoria Cowen is getting the crown instead. Fechtel had already dropped her classes at the University of Florida to begin preparation for the Miss America pageant, her mom tells the Orlando Sentinel. So what happened? Pageant officials told the Fechtels that one judge changed his mind about who should finish first in the final seconds of his allotted time and drew lines on his ballot to reverse his vote, reports the Tampa Bay Times. The switch got overlooked initially, but a subsequent independent audit confirmed that Cowen was the rightful winner. Fechtel called to congratulate her friend, and she'll also have to hand over the thousands in scholarship money she won ever so briefly. In a statement, the pageant chalked it up to an "error in the tabulation process." In Delaware, meanwhile, the newly crowned winner got stripped of her title because she was too old at 24.