One of my favourite sections of the site (even if I’ve never settled on the perfect name for it!), a look at all the Miss Nebraska Teen USA titleholders who’ve gone on to compete at Miss USA or in other state pageants. It’s always inspiring to see where their journeys have taken them — whether they won a crown early on, competed once or twice and then hung up the heels or kept showing up year after year, showing persistence in their quest to walk the Miss USA stage.
Nebraska was one of last states to send one of its own former Teens to Miss USA, but following Meagan Winings‘ (2004) win in 2009, the 2010s became dominated by former Teens, most notably Sarah Smith (2012) who won Miss USA 2018. Eventually five of the eight Miss Nebraska Teen USAs from 2009-2016 went on to compete at Miss USA.
* Where the semi-finalists are cut in multiple stages before the top 5 or 6
2009
1
Meagan Winings (2004)
1980s
0
1990s
0
2010s
4
Amanda Soltero (2010), Sarah Summers (2012), Jasmine Fuelberth (2013), Erika Etzelmiller (2016)
Winners highlighted in italics. Stats may be inaccurate, especially for the 1980s & 1990s as I am reliant on newspaper archives which do not list all contestants.
1980s
1
Jackie Kuenning (1983)
1990s
1
Lori Andersen (1998)
2000s
3
Brieanne Bogart (2002), Meagan Winings (2004), Sarah Hollins (2009)
2010s
8
Amanda Soltero (2010), Madison Novak (2011), Sarah Summers (2012), Jasmine Fuelberth (2013), Erika Etzelmiller (2016), Samantha Washington (2017), Michaela Edstrand (2018), Erin Shae Swanson (2019)
Nebraska, Florida
Winner
7
Meagan Winings (2004), Sarah Hollins (2009), Amanda Soltero (2010), Sarah Summers (2012), Jasmine Fuelberth (2013), Erika Etzelmiller (2016), Audrey Eckert (2020)
2nd runner-up
1
Lori Andersen (1998)
