ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (AP) – Contestants from Florida and Ohio won the first night of preliminary competition in the Miss America pageant on a night that saw one of the contestants collapse onstage.
Miss Florida Victoria Cowen won the swimsuit competition yesterday, while Miss Ohio Mackenzie Bart won the talent competition for a ventriloquism routine.
The awards were announced moments after Miss Rhode Island, Ivy DePew, collapsed onstage and was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Pageant officials said she appeared to be overheated but predicted she would be all right.
DePew was standing in the back row of contestants at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall when she collapsed during an awards presentation by New Jersey Lt Governor Kim Guadagno.
Dena Blizzard, the pageant’s host, told the audience “She just got a little overheated”.
Sharon Pearce, president of the Miss America Organisation, said DePew would be fine.
“She fainted, but she will be OK,” Pearce told The Associated Press.
Sam Haskell III, CEO of the Miss America Organisation, said DePew was alert and talking as she left Boardwalk Hall with her family en route to a hospital. He did not know if she would need to stay overnight.
DePew had competed earlier in the evening in the pageant’s swimsuit and evening gown competition.
Bart wowed the crowd with a ventriloquism routine in which her dummy appeared to sing the Mary Poppins song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
The next Miss America will be crowned Sunday night.
