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 South Dakota 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.
Miss New York Teen USA titleholders have achieved mixed success at Miss USA, with only two of eight “crossovers” making the cut. Kimberly Pressler famously went from being one of the lowest placed contestants in 1994 to winning Miss USA 1999 and on the flip side, Gloria Almonte finished 1st runner-up at Miss Teen USA 2001 but did not make the semi-finals at Miss USA 2007. Thatiana Diaz is the only New York Teen to place in both pageants.
While they didn’t compete at Miss USA, I’d be remiss not to mention Corrin Stellakis (2014) has represented the US as both Miss Earth USA and Miss US International and Lisa Drouillard (2011) competed as Miss Haiti at Miss Universe 2015.
Non-finalist
6
Jillayne Fossum (1988), Tabitha Moude (1991), Jessica Fjerstad (2002), Lexy Schenk (2011), Kalani Jorgensen (2012), Shania Knutson (2018)
1991
1
Jillayne Fossum (1988)
1994
1
Tabitha Moude (1991)
2005
1
Jessica Fjerstad (2002)
States competed in: South Dakota, Nebraska
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
Jillayne Fossum (1988)
1990s
1
Tabitha Moude (1991)
2000s
4
Nichole Brockhoft (2000), Jessica Fjerstad (2002), Katie Schull (2004), Fallyn Patterson (2009)
2010s
8
Alyssa Hustrulid (2010), Lexy Schenk (2011), Kalani Jorgensen (2012), Alexis Rupp (2013), Madison McKeown (2014), Marley Hanson (2015), Makenzie Falcon (2016), Shania Knutson (2018)
2020s
0
