Katelyn Kehler named pageant winner

MOSES LAKE - Katelyn Kehler, 17, and a student at Moses Lake Christian Academy, was selected as the 2013 Distinguished Young Woman at Saturday's pageant in Moses Lake. Christiane Phillips, 17, was the first finalist, and Madison Bowser, 17, was the second finalist. Both are students at Moses Lake High School.

The girls will spend the summer representing Moses Lake at events around the state, and Kehler will compete in the state Distinguished Young Woman pageant. Participants must be high school juniors.

"I'm so excited," Kehler said after the results were announced. She didn't know how the pageant would go, she said, so "I just had to give it all I've got." She received the pageant's Spirit award, Scholastic award and Self-Expression award in addition to the title.

She gave credit to her parents, Mike and Kris Kehler, her family and friends for all the support she received while preparing for the pageant, and in her life. The pageant itself was a good experience, she said, getting to know girls she otherwise wouldn't have known. She's looking forward to a summer full of events, she said. "I can't wait."

Neither Phillips nor Bowser expected to be on the court - or that the pageant process would be so much fun, they said. "I had no idea" she would be chosen, Bowser said. The pageant was something she's always wanted to do, she said. "But it was more fun than we even thought it was going to be," Phillips said.

Phillips said she was slightly hesitant about applying for the pageant at first, because she had a lot going on. But she was glad she made the commitment. "I'm just so happy I'm with these two girls," she said. And they got scholarship money in the bargain, Bowser said.

Phillips received the award for the judge's interview. Haley Sell received the Community Outreach award for her work promoting the pageant in the community.

Madisyn Lybbert sang a selection from the musical "Camelot" and won the Talent award. Jaylynn Hernandez received the Fitness award. The 2013 pageant drew 10 contestants, including Julisa Jones, Chasaddy Clary, Allison Hammer and LeAnna Knittle. Jones, Sell, Lybbert, Clary, Hernandez and Hammer are students at Moses Lake High School. Knittle is a student at Moses Lake Christian Academy.

Camiel Bruneel, the 2012 Distinguished Young Woman winner, Maddison Cloyd and Sarah Law, the 2012 finalists, recounted their year - including the hometown parade, where the float broke down and their parents and a volunteer crew had to push it.

The Distinguished Young Woman program formerly was known as the Junior Miss pageant, and has been held in Moses Lake since 1988.