College Happenings

HOLY CRAP!

That is what I said last night after seeing Miss Montana win Miss Teen USA.

No one from Montana or Wyoming or the Dakotas wins contests like that. It must be the first time ever.

It must have been the night for irregulars. Miss North Dakota was in the top 10 as well as Miss Montana. Miss Texas was not even in the top 15. That is crazy, because that is like the pagent state.

BUT…Miss Montana is not really a Montana native, she is a transplant from where else, Texas. I should have known. Mid west girls don’t know how to do pagents…why? We don’t have them here. In Texas they have a pagent for everything. Miss Pork Sausage, Miss Good Year Tire, Miss teen miss, etc. In Montana and Wyoming we have rodeo queens and that is about it…as far as I know. For that you have to know how to rodeo more than be pretty.

Here is what the Billings Gazette had to say about Miss Montana.

West High graduate Katie Blair was crowned Miss Teen USA Tuesday night in Palm Springs, Calif.

Blair, 18, is the daughter of John Blair of Billings and Cindy Silverstein of Houston. She is a 2006 graduate of West High, which she began attending as a sophomore after moving to Billings from Houston, said her aunt, Leslie Blair of Billings.

“I think it’s fabulous that she won, competed well and had the confidence to do this,” Leslie Blair said.

Blair had planned to attend Louisiana State University. For the next year, she will live in New York City and work for Donald Trump, who owns the pageant, while serving her term as Miss Teen USA.

The contestants competed in three categories – swimsuit, evening gown and interview, and the top five finalists were selected. Blair was crowned by Miss Teen USA 2005 Allie LaForce at the end of a two-hour telecast at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

In an interview on the Miss Teen USA Web site (www.missteenusa.com), Blair said she grew up in Houston and lists two years of track and basketball in high school there. Blair was prom queen in 2006 and voted “most likely to star in a sitcom” by her classmates at West High.

According to the interview, Blair said she plans to pursue degrees in advertising, marketing and fashion design.

Miss North Carolina Teen USA Melissa Lingafelt was named first runner-up, and Miss North Dakota Teen USA Katie Marie Cooper was second runner-up.

Rounding out the top 10 were Samantha Casey, Miss Virginia Teen USA, third runner-up; Brittany Sharp, Miss Georgia Teen USA, fourth runner-up; Shaelyn McNally, Rhode Island; Juliana White, New Jersey; Gentry Linn Miller, Kansas; Jamie O’Brien, Maryland; and Emerald Zellers, Arizona.

The pageant is organized by the Miss Universe Organization, a Donald Trump and NBC Universal partnership. The organization also produces the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.

According to the organization’s Web site, Miss Teen USA spends her year building relationships with organizations committed to education and action, such as Best Buddies, Do Something, Sparrow Clubs, D.A.R.E. and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).