Nicole Rash's possession of the Miss Indiana crown ended Saturday and couldn't be repeated by another Ball State University student.
But Ball State students Claire Buffie and Katie Hrynewycz became second and third runner up in the competition.
Buffie, Ball State graduate and second runner-up, stood on the stage after the winner was called for group photos. Once her pictures were snapped, she walked away and started to cry.
"These are happy tears," she said.
Buffie won the Miss Central Indiana pageant to enter the Miss Indiana competition and won $2,250 in scholarship money.
Buffie said she was satisfied with how the pageant ended. She felt she put in a 100 percent effort and was happy with how well she placed, she said.
"I'm so fulfilled," she said. "I feel in each area of competition, I did the absolute best that I could."
But Miss Indiana can be draining physically as well as mentally, she said, with all the training and rehearsing she's had to do for the pageant. So contestants have to be tough mentally and stay positive.
"It's definitely a mental state of mind that you have to achieve to really win here," she said.
As the pageant rookie, Hrynewycz won the Hoosier Spirit Award, the equivalent of Miss Congeniality from Miss America, which is voted on by a contestant's pageant peers to award the nicest and friendliest personality.
Hrynewycz also won the Miss Heart of Indiana pageant to compete in Miss Indiana and placed as third runner-up, winning $1,750 in scholarship money.
Hrynewycz said it was an honor for her to compete and win the awards and scholarships she won in her first year at Miss Indiana.
Her pageant preparation was the most important part of the pageant, she said. Because it let Hrynewycz's compete and perform without thinking.
Compared to her preparation, the pageant was easy, she said.
"It was work, but it was fun work," she said.
She was not only happy with how she did in the pageant but also was grateful for the lifelong friends she's made.
"You get on this bus with these girls, and you just sit and take big sighs together and almost start to cry together, and then you start to laugh together," Hrynewycz said. "It's been an emotional week in all the good ways."
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