Middleton to Host State Pageants This Weekend
MIDDLETON–For the first time since 2009, the annual Miss Wisconsin-USA and Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA state pageant competitions will be held in the Good Neighbor City of Middleton. The double pageants will be staged together at the Madison Marriott West Hotel and Conference Center, 1313 John Q. Hammons Dr., in Middleton, May 7-8.
The 2022 preliminary competition show will be held at 7 p.m. on May 7 with all statewide contestants participating on stage during the jointly held state competitions which will determine the selection of the semi-finalists in both state events who will be named at the finale and coronation show at 3 p.m. on May 8.
Returning to crown their successors will be the reigning Miss Wisconsin-USA 2021, Samantha Catherine Keaton, 21, of Milwaukee, who is formerly from Austin, Texas; and the current Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA 2021, Shreya Gundelly, 19, of Mequon, who became the first East-Indian American to win the state teen title.
Both women won their state crowns on May 23, 2021 at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells, which was the first time ever that city played host to the Wisconsin state pageants. While Keaton did not place in the 2021 Miss USA pageant on Nov. 29 in Tulsa, OK., Gundelly was among the top 16 semi-finalists at the 39th annual Miss Teen-USA pageant.
Tickets for this weekend's preliminary and finale state pageant shows in Middleton will be available at the door and also at this website: http://www.misswisconsinusa.com/wi-tickets.html
The double state pageant competitions had been held at Fond du Lac High School's Performing Arts Center since the 2011 state contests were held there in September 2010. Prior to the move to Fond du Lac, the state programs were staged at Middleton High School's Performing Arts Center in 2009 and 2008, and before that at the Madison Marriott West Hotel and Conference Center in 2007 after the shows moved from the Richland Center High School which hosted the previous two years (2006 and 2005).
No Wisconsin entrant has ever won the coveted Miss USA crown and the chance to compete in the Miss Universe pageant; while Vanessa Marie Semrow of Rhinelander is the only Wisconsin representative to have won the Miss Teen-USA competition. She earned her state crown at MATC in Madison in October 2001 and later became Miss Teen-USA 2002 on Aug. 28, 2002 in South Padre Island, TX. No Middleton entrant as ever won either of the two state pageants.
