BATON ROUGE, La. — Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez, a fourth-degree black belt in the Korean martial art of taekwondo, has been crowned Miss USA 2014.
She beat out 50 other contestants Sunday night in Louisiana.
Additional Images
First runner-up was Miss North Dakota Audra Mari.
Erin Brady, of South Glastonbury, Connecticut, the 2013 winner, gave up her crown to Sanchez after a three-hour telecast from the Baton Rouge Civic Center in Louisiana.
Other runnerups were home state beauty queen, Miss Louisiana Brittany Guidry; Miss Georgia Tiana Griggs, Miss Florida Brittany Oldehoff and Miss Iowa Carlyn Bradarich.
Contestants entered the stage on a glitzy float as Louisiana native singer-songwriter Marc Broussard sang the New Orleans hits “Iko Iko” and “Hey Pocky Way” to kick off the 2014 contest.
The pageant also included musical acts by the country music duo Florida Georgia Line, rapper Nelly and Latin pop band Camila.
Sanchez will go on from the 63rd Miss USA to represent the U.S. at the Miss Universe competition later this year.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.