Pageant News Bureau - Miss Teen USA 2001, Page 3

What did we tell you?

PNB recently extolled the extraordinary singing voice of Kristi Krings, Miss Montana Teen USA. Now, Miss Teen USA officials have taken note of it. When contestants visited a baseball game near the pageant site, she was drafted to sing the National Anthem.

Not a second to waste

When Hayley VanCleave was 14, she headed to California to work as a model. When she was 15, she auditioned for a role on a soap opera. When she was 16, she graduated from high school. When she was 17, she won the Miss Idaho Teen USA Pageant.

Now she's 18, and what's next? Well, the Miss Teen USA crown would certainly make the year complete.

When you list all her accomplishments chronologically, Ms. VanCleave sounds unstoppable. But in her own mind, she's just a regular girl who has had her ups and downs -- and likes to laugh about the downs. Her California career didn't last, she says, because she realized she was too young. She didn't get the soap opera part, but she wound up "totally hooked" on watching the show. And she got into pageants "pretty much by accident."

Ms. VanCleave has a deep love of Idaho. Whitewater rafting on clear mountain streams is her favorite thing about the summer. She likes the smell, the sights, the sounds of the rocky rivers. But her heart is still set on modeling and acting, and she may eventually find herself far from home. That's the nature of the business.

Her "role model" is Jennifer Lopez, a very urban girl. Ms. VanCleave is partly Latin herself. After hearing her diverse ethnic background, we concluded that she's a little bit of everything. And everything is beautiful.

Photos courtesy of Hayley VanCleave

Photo courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP

It only hurts until she wins

Don't stand next to Krystal DeAnn Spurr when she's getting ready for a pageant. She's accident-prone.

"I hurt myself every time," says Miss Colorado Teen USA. "Before the state pageant, I bruised my cheek." And it was even worse before nationals. "I cut my eyebrow on a car window. It took four stitches."

But the bad luck never follows her onto the pageant stage. When this 17-year-old is competing, there are no cuts, no bruises, no clunky moves. She's as graceful as a swan. And she has a way of winning. That's how she got to South Padre.

For all her injuries, Ms. Spurr is actually one of the most athletic girls at Miss Teen USA. "In summer, I do all kinds of water sports. In winter, I do skiing and snowboarding. I like basketball and volleyball." She's also a champion cheerleader who has performed before royalty in England. And lately she has taken up karate.

Ms. Spurr is hoping to make the cut for the Denver Broncos cheerleading squad.

Photo courtesy of the Carlton Group

Her idol (and friend) is Katee Doland, who was Miss Colorado Teen USA, became the youngest member of the Denver squad and later was crowned Miss Colorado USA.

For the long term, Ms. Spurr's goals are a little less definite. "I'd like to be a model or actress, or possibly do interior designing or sports broadcasting." But nothing involving car windows.

The Wild, Wild West

Natalie Koontz, Miss Wyoming Teen USA, was born and raised in the land of the cowgirls. But she's no Calamity Jane. When we asked her about horseback riding, she said, "Yes, I took that up this year."

OK, so we asked a tenderfoot question. But a lot of other city slickers make the same mistake. They think Wyoming hasn't changed since the Old West. "Some people who come here are just amazed," said Ms. Koontz. "They say, 'You have cars here!' "

Photo at right courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP, others courtesy of Natalie Koontz

Visitors from faraway places are nothing unusual in Ms. Koontz's corner of Wyoming. She lives near Yellowstone National Park. Some of the greatest natural wonders in North America are only minutes away, and a few get much closer, like the grizzly bear who has been spotted in her back yard.

Ms. Koontz is a pageant newcomer. Before someone talked her into trying out for the state title, her experience in the glamour field was limited to modeling for a Western wear catalogue. (She may not be a cowgirl, but she looks like one.)

Right after the pageant in South Padre, she will be heading off to college, a long way from Old Faithful and the curious grizzly. She will be studying psychology in Steubenville, Ohio. It's not what some people think of as an exciting place to be, but to her it's like Shangri-La. "I've been looking forward to it all my life," she says.

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