Ironton native to compete in Miss America

By Adam Black Daily Independent 2 hrs ago

An Ironton Ohio native will walk across the big stage in the coming days to represent the state of Virginia in the Miss America competition.

Miss Virginia 2017 Cecili Weber will represent the state September 10th on national tv.

Weber, who is from Ironton, graduated from Saint Joseph Central High School in 2013 took first place June 24th and was crowned 2017 Miss Virginia at the Berglund Performing Arts Center.

Weber beat out the rest in the Miss Virginia pageant with her platform of “Born Leaders” and her talent which was a contemporary dance piece to Donna Summer’s “Last Dance.” Weber also impressed the judges with her keen answers to questions.

Along with the title and crown Weber received a $20,000 scholarship and will go on to compete in the Miss America Pageant.

The Miss America pageant airs live on the ABC network at 9 p.m.

During the national competition Weber will compete with the best of each state in several rounds of competition including a talent competition, presentation and community achievement, evening wear, and swimsuit competition.

The preliminary round of competition selects the top 16 competitors out of the 50 overall. From there, subsequent final competitions gradually narrow the field to eight. Once the top eight are selected the judges each pick their top five competitors, ranking them in the order they believe they should finish.

On the evening of the live show, if Weber beats out the rest in the preliminary rounds, she will be judged again by a panel of judges with composite accounting at 25 percent; Swimsuit, 10 percent; Evening wear, 15 percent; Talent, 30 percent; Question 1, 5 percent and Question 2 at 15 percent.

Weber told news outlets after winning the crown, "it was an amazing experience. The best part of it really though was meeting the girls, there are just so many amazing ladies."

Weber graduated from Hollins University with a degree in communications, and received a $20,000 scholarship.

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