After Kendra Burns won the Lake Elsinore district spelling bee for the third time in four years Wednesday night, she said she has just one goal.

"This year, I just want to make it to D.C.," she said after her victory. "This is my last year (in the competition), so my goal is D.C."

D.C refers to Washington, D.C., where the national spelling bee will be held each May.

Kendra, 13, an eighth-grader at Canyon Lake Middle School, won the district bee in the ninth round by spelling "heterogeneous," which means consisting of dissimilar or diverse ingredients or constituents.

Five spellers entered the eighth round, but Kendra's competitors missed their words while she correctly spelled "formaldehyde."

Kendra said her experience in past bees paid off.

"Most kids get nervous when it gets to the end," she said. "That's when I get excited."

Kendra will represent the district in the Riverside County Spelling Bee on March 24. It will be her third shot at moving to the national bee.

She finished second in the county's bee in 2007, and last year was disappointed with her exit in the 13th round.

Kendra said she plans to increase her study time after misspelling "frigorific," a word that means "causing chilling," at the last county bee.

"I don't really practice," she admitted. "I don't study so much."

That works for the local bees, she said, as the word lists don't change much from year to year. At higher levels though, confidential lists are used of words that students may not have studied.

Logan Karlen, a seventh-grader at Elsinore Middle School, finished second, successfully spelling paraphernalia in the third round of a spell-off for the runner-up spot.

Logan, 12, who finished second in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District two years ago, is happy that Kendra won't be eligible next year, giving him a better opportunity to win.

"Until Kendra got here, I thought I had a pretty good chance," Logan said. "Still, I thought I had a chance, but she's the cream of the crop."

Logan said he prepared by studying the word list with his mother, who he said is the biggest reason for his success.

He was tripped up of "gnosis," an esoteric knowledge of spiritual truth held by the ancient Gnostics to be essential to salvation.

Finishing in a tie for third place was Abigail Akyea, a fourth-grader from Tuscany Hills Elementary, who moved to Lake Elsinore from Ghana just last year, not knowing much English.

Thirty-five spellers, the top finishers at the campus level, competed at the Rotary Performing Arts Center on the Lakeside High School campus. The competition is open to students fourth to eighth grade.

The bee started slowly, with two of the first three spellers missing their words. A third of the field was eliminated after two rounds.

Fifteen spellers entered the fourth round, when the intermediate list came out, and four quickly fell, missing "abeyance," "aggregate," "beguile" and "borough."

Call staff writer Craig Shultz at 951-676-4315, ext. 2625.