HOT SPRINGS — Loren McDaniel finally broke down.
After a night of keeping it together — putting on a mask of calm through a song, and showing off a white evening gown and a pink swimsuit — the 2015 Miss Arkansas pageant winner finally broke.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, oh, my God, thank you,” she yelled while 2014 Miss Arkansas Ashton Campbell placed the crown on her successor’s head.
After a night of stoic smiles on a nervous face, McDaniel could finally show what she was really feeling.
“I kept closing my eyes and opening them again thinking, ‘OK is this real? Is this real? Is this actually real?” said McDaniel, 22, Miss Northwest Arkansas.
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville graduate, who placed second runner-up in last year’s competition, will now represent Arkansas in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J., beginning on Sept. 8.
McDaniel, from Van Buren, received a $20,000 scholarship and more than $75,000 in additional prizes.
The 78th annual Miss Arkansas Scholarship Pageant was held in Hot Springs at the Bank of Ozarks Arena, and was co-hosted by KATV, Channel 7, Daybreak anchor Chris Kane and Miss Arkansas 2009 Sarah Slocum Collins. Miss America 2015 Kira Kazantsev entered the arena to a standing ovation and was on hand to help crown McDaniel. Kazantsev, who represented New York in the Miss America competition, also performed a duet with Campbell.
The 46 Miss Arkansas hopefuls arrived in Hot Springs last Sunday to kick off the week-long competition. The week began with 10-minute interviews on Monday and Tuesday in front of a panel of five judges. Preliminary rounds started Wednesday and ended Friday, with winners of the talent and swimsuit portions of the competition announced at the end of each day.
The contestants in 46 silver, rhinestone dresses took to the runway to begin Saturday night’s event in front of a crowd of about 3,000 people. Shortly after the program began, the list of 46 was whittled to 10, and the competition for those semifinalists began anew. The 10 finalists repeated their talent, evening gown and swimsuit performances.
Aside from McDaniel, the other contestants in the top 10 were: Miss Southeast Arkansas Stoni Butler, 21, of Camden; Miss Northeast Arkansas Claudia Raffo, 19, of Jonesboro; Miss Western Arkansas Darynne Dahlem, 18, of Greenwood; Miss Arkansas Valley Jacey Winn, 19, of Wynne; Miss Ouachita River Bailey Moses, 20, of Cabot; Miss White River Samantha Hudon, 23, of Hot Springs; Miss University of Arkansas Brejamin Perkins, 23, of North Little Rock; Miss Diamond Lakes Makenzie Moore, 23, of Harrison; and Miss Henderson State University Brooke Cornelius, 21, of Hope.
McDaniel performed “A Piece of Sky” by Barbra Streisand as her talent and won $2,000 for best overall interview, which is an additional $2,000 scholarship. Her platform is “Confidently You,” an initiative to end domestic violence and bullying.
After winning, McDaniel walked down the runway in tears, sporting a crown and a smile. She turned, and as she got to the opposite end, was engulfed by her comrades as confetti sprinkled on elegant evening gowns and stuck onto hair-sprayed ponytails.
That’s when she broke down again. This time, the tears wouldn’t stop.
“Loren,” one woman yelled. “You’re going to Miss America.”
NW News on 07/12/2015