Best of Luck to the Miss Lake Erie/ Miss Northern Ohio Pageant

Tonight in Lexington two more women will earn the right to compete at Miss Ohio next summer! In addition to the very successful title Miss Lake Erie, a brand new Miss Northern Ohio will be crowned, as well as Miss Lake Erie’s Outstanding Teen. The pageant will take place at Lexington High School at 7:30 p.m. Excitingly, all contestants will earn at least $50!

The theme is “She’s a Lady” and will include Miss Ohio featured dancer David Dunn and former Miss Lake Erie’s Bryn Hough, Leslie Ondrey and Marlia Fontain; Marlia was, of course, also Miss Ohio. Emcees for the evening are WMFD TV's Brigitte Coles and Nick Kosir.

Outgoing Miss Lake Erie, Nanciann Strosnider [above left] won a Talent Preliminary Award at Miss Ohio and was named 4th Runner-up. However, she has opted to compete for the title Miss Northern Ohio rather than giving up her crown. As I understand it, she will not be pictured or listed in the program book as the outgoing Miss and she forfeits the right to crown her predecessor. In any double crown competition all the ladies compete together and there is only one panel of judges; the top two women then get the two crowns. In this case it is up to the auditors to give Nanciann Miss Northern Ohio (and NOT Miss Lake Erie) if she is one of the top two.

This is an extremely competitive group of contestants and it should be a great pageants. In alphabetical order they are:

Amy Allen is a vocalist who works with Habitat for Humanity. She holds a Master in Business Administration from Mount Vernon Nazarene. Amy is no stranger to the pageant system, having won many Spirit awards.

Katie Bowen studies Clinical Laboratory Science and Business at Ohio Northern University. She was recently 2nd Runner-up at Miss North Coast; I think she plays the flute for her talent.

Emily Cousino is a vocalist who advocates Heart Start Education. She studies Art Therapy and Business and Computer Systems at Lourdes College. This year at Miss Ohio as Miss Mansfield she won the Non-finalist Interview award.

Sophia Davis is a dancer who studies Speech Communications at Miami University. Her platform is Every Child Counts: Improving Self-esteem in Youth. She competed last year at Miss Ohio as Miss Mansfield; this summer as Miss Miami Valley she was in the Top 10.

Alyssa Hanson is a Communication and Voice major at the University of Cincinnati. She is a vocalist who advocates Promoting a Positive Body Image for Young Women. She competed this summer at Miss Ohio as Miss Heart of Ohio.

Heather Lindsay is a student at Sinclair Community College. She is a vocalist who works with the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters program. This summer at Miss Ohio she won a Swimsuit Preliminary award as Miss Hamilton.

Karissa Martin studies Music and Communications at West Liberty State College. She is a vocalist; her platform issue is Skin Cancer Awareness. In her first try at Miss Ohio this summer she was named 2nd Runner-up at Miss Scioto Valley.

Becky Minger studies Interpersonal Communications at Bowling Green State University. She is a vocalist who advocates Youth Self-esteem with her platform "It's not your booty, it's your inner beauty." She competed at Miss Ohio this summer as Miss Northwestern Ohio and was 1st Runner-up last year as Miss Greater Dayton.




Nanciann Strosnider is a Musical Theatre major at Elon University. For pageants she sings and advocates Arts Education. At Miss Ohio she was in the Top 10 as Miss Portsmouth and named 4th Runner-up as Miss South Central Ohio and Miss Lake Erie.






Heather Wells was recently 2nd Runner-up at Miss Greater Cleveland/ Miss Open City. She has competed for a year or so, but the only other information I have is that she is a dancer.

Jenna Wilson is a vocalist studying Communications and Voice at Ohio University. For her platform she works with the March of Dimes. Jenna competed at Miss Ohio in 2006 at Miss Southeastern Ohio.

Kasey Wilson studies Voice at Ohio State University; thusly, for talent she sings opera. Her platform is M.A.D.D. Kasey made the Top 10 at Miss Ohio as Miss Licking County and Miss Clayland; this year as Miss Central Ohio she was named 3rd Runner-up.


*Jenna and Kasey are not related.

Megan Wombacker is an Accounting major and Marketing and Management minor at Kent State University, with plans to go into their MBA program. She is a tap dancer who advocates Vision Awareness. Megan has competed in several local pageants over the past two years.





*You may have noticed several of these women are still holding the pageant titles they won last year, and yes, they are allowed to compete despite that. It is rather common for women to hold over-lapping titles. Most pageant directors do not have a problem “releasing” their titleholder to compete in the new pageant season; if they didn’t allow her to compete, then they would be lessening her chances to get back to Miss Ohio.

The Teen contestants are:
Kari Boles
Lauren Hawkins
Sarah Hider
Stormee McHargue
Christina Muha

[Photos from either the Miss Ohio website or the CMN Donation Pages.]