Alex O’Connor of Keystone is the new Miss Chadron Outstanding Teen and Holly Walker of Gering is the new Miss Northwest Outstanding Teen.

Both were crowned yesterday in Chadron from a field of 9 contestants. Named as the 1st-runnerup to Miss Chadron OT was Mikaela Hastings of Chadron, while Jessica Helt of Gering is the 1st-runnerup to Miss Northwest Outstanding.

The Outstanding Teen program is part of the Miss America system and was started in the last decade as a training ground for 13-to-17 year olds for possible future Miss America contestants.

Pageant coordinator Riki Cornish Hunter hopes the seven non-winning contestants will compete again, and is encouraging them to enter the Miss Alliance OT Pageant in February.

O’Connor and Walker received, along with their crowns, paid entry to next June’s Miss Nebraska Outstanding Teen pageant…held in conjunction with the Miss Nebraska Pageant.

Both pageant finals are the same day in North Platte. The new state winner will advance to the Miss America Outstanding Teen pageant later in the summer in Orlando, Florida.

New to the Chadron pageant this year was the Little Miss Chadron/Little Miss Northwest competition…which drew 16 girls between the ages of 7-and-10.

Crowned as Little Miss Chadron was Aspen Graves of Chadron with the title of Little Miss Northwest going to Chloe Blumanthal of Alliance. 1st-runnerup to Little Miss Chadron was Alyssa Snyder of Chadron, while Carly Lemmon of Crawford was the 1st-runnerup to Little Miss Northwest.

Hunter added the Little Miss competition this year after seeing it used in South Dakota in most of the local qualifying pageants for Miss South Dakota and Miss South Dakota OT. Hunter was very pleased with the response to its inclusion.

Hunter…herself a 2-time Miss Nebraska contestant…says the Little Miss competitions in South Dakota are used primarily as fundraisers for the older pageants. That was true in a couple different ways for the Chadron pageant, but Hunter was most pleased simply with the response from the girls and the audience.

As the winners…Graves and Blumanthal received a crown, sash, trophy and bouquet. They will represent Chadron and Northwest Nebraska for the next year.