Talent and swimwear competitions end in ties during second night of Miss Mississippi preliminaries

Published 9:14 am Friday, June 22, 2018

From The Vicksburg Post

VICKSBURG — It was a tie for both the talent and swimwear phases of the Miss Mississippi Pageant in the second night of preliminary competitions.

Miss University Charlie Ann Nix and Miss North Central Mississippi Brooke Bullock were the swimwear preliminary winners and Miss Hinds Community College Charity Lockridge and Miss Amory Molly May tied for Talent.

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“I am overwhelmed with joy and all the glory goes to God,” Lockridge, who is a first year competitor in the Miss Mississippi Pageant, said. “He gave me this voice and he gave me this talent and without Him I would not be able to do this.”

Lockridge sang Sandi Patty’s “Via Dolorosa” and credited her Bowmar Avenue Elementary School music teacher Joanne Ryan for getting her involved with music.

“She always put me up front to lead a song whenever we had a program,” Lockridge said.

May, who also won the preliminary talent competition in last year’s pageant, sang

Jennifer Holliday’s version of “I am Changing” from the Broadway musical, “Dream Girls.”

“I am so happy. I wish I had a bigger word or better adjective,” May said, after being asked what she was feeling when named one of the two talent preliminary winners.

“I haven’t sung this song since I was 17 years old. It is the song I won preliminary talent with at the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant, so I figured why not blow the dust off and see what happens and I am very, very pleased.”

Both Nix and Bullock are veteran Miss Mississippi Pageant contestants, though neither had ever won a swimwear preliminary.

“This is something I have always dreamed of in the back of my head, but I really never thought I was capable of doing it,” Bullock said. “For the past year, I made it my goal to not only return the Vicksburg stage, but come back healthier and more capable in the division, because I knew this was something I needed to work on.”

Nix said she too had worked hard in preparing for the swimwear phase of the competition.

“I ate really healthy, lots of chicken and vegetables and no soft drinks in the year 2018. And that has been very tough for me because I am a Dr. Pepper girl,” she said.

Nix said she goes to the gym daily, but by having a thinner build, the difference for her has been weight training.

“I have had to gradually work my way up and now I can do 90 pounds in a leg press, and although that may not seem like much, it was a lot for me.”

The final preliminary competition will be held tonight at the Vicksburg Convention Center .