Miss Ohio crowns final swimsuit winner

MANSFIELD – The Miss Ohio competition took a high-heeled step into its future on Thursday with the first preliminary round of the 2018 race.

In an age of renewed female empowerment, the competition saw one of its last-ever rounds of swimsuit competition and awarded two new scholarships based on women in business and women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Abolishing the swimsuit competition went into effect immediately this month for the Miss America organization, but since state contests are already underway, states will not adopt the new format until after the national competition in September.

The question of who will represent Ohio in that national competition remains to be seen after the first round of preliminaries on Thursday. The night introduced the 20 women competing for the 2018 crown, including their talents and opinions on their respective platforms.

Miss Miami Valley Hannah Zimmerman and Miss Maple City Matti-Lynn Chrisman celebrated winning the swimsuit and talent competitions, respectively, at the first night of the Miss Ohio competition.

Chrisman went back to Broadway for her singing talent, and discussed her platform “Pain Isn’t Always Obvious: Mental Health Awareness and Suicide Prevention.” She hopes to end the stigma on mental health and suicide prevention by creating a world where it is okay to not be okay.

The nine other ladies competing in the talent portion of the competition on Thursday showed off singing, baton and dance skills. By far the most unique talent of the night came from Miss Greater Cleveland Xyla Foxlin, who combined art and engineering by playing violin via a tesla coil and lightening that took 100 hours to create.

Zimmerman and the ladies of her flight strutted their stuff in both swimsuits and evening gowns. The women will flip competitions for the second preliminary round on Friday evening.