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| Local teen fares well at pageant |
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| News | |||
| Written by Aaron Cedeño | |||
| Wednesday, 30 December 2009 09:00 | |||
Mackenzie Eveland was, to put it mildly, a little busy.  Busy meeting new people. Busy asking questions. Busy learning a host of complicated walking patterns and dance numbers. And, oh yeah – as a Louisburg High School senior, she was busy studying for finals. Such are the sacrifices one makes when competing for the title of Miss Kansas Teen USA. But to hear Eveland tell it, the experience was worth the effort. “It was really fun,” she said of the pageant, which was held Dec. 18-20 at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lawrence. “It was a really good experience. I don’t know if all pageants are that way, but it was really fun.” Heading into the competition, Eveland was excited – if a bit apprehensive. Most of the other 16 contestants, many of whom also hailed from northeast Kansas, were pageant veterans, but Eveland was new to the scene. With no pageant experience, she showed up at registration Dec. 18 with no preconceived notions of what to expect. “I don’t know if I was looking forward to it, because I was almost scared to go,” Eveland said. “But once I got there, it was a really fun experience, and they kept you so busy that you didn’t have down time.” The late-to-bed-early-to-rise schedule kept by the pageant contestants brought back memories of cheer camp, she explained, and it wasn’t long before she fell into a rhythm. On Dec. 18, following registration, Eveland met with city officials and other local dignitaries, enjoying a welcome banquet and getting to know her fellow contestants. The next day was encompassed primarily by rehearsals for the presentation show at the Lied Center later that evening, at which the contestants were presented to the judges in both swimwear and evening gowns. The final day, Dec. 20, began with a personal interview session – four minutes with each of the five judges – followed by more rehearsals in the afternoon and, finally, the last round of competition. Though it was just her first pageant, Eveland acquitted herself extraordinarily well, bringing home the “top swimsuit” award as well as finishing first runner-up in the overall competition. Now that she has one under her belt, she said, she’s starting to see the potential benefits of pageant life. “A lot of people have been asking me that,” Eveland said, of whether or not she’ll compete for the title of Miss Kansas USA next year. “I feel like I would want to because I got pretty close (to winning), and such great things can come from pageants like big (college) scholarships.”
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