Miss Delaware 2014, Amanda Longacre, was forced to forfeit her crown this week after pageant organizers said she was too old to bear the title.
Longacre, of Bear, was crowned Miss Delaware June 14, edging out runner-up Brittany Lewis, of Wilmington. She was awarded the crown, an $11,000 scholarship, and the chance to compete in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in September.
But it all came crashing down last week when organizers told her she was being disqualified
because she was too old, the Wilmington News Journal reported.
Longacre, 24, will turn 25 on Oct. 22.
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According to the Miss America website, contestants must be between 17 and 24 years of age. Pageant board member and legal counsel Elizabeth Soucek told the News Journal that it's a "Miss America rule" that entrants could not turn 25 before Dec. 31.
"Following the Miss Delaware Pageant, it was determined that Amanda Longacre exceeded the age requirement in order to be eligible to compete. Therefore, the Miss Delaware 2014 title is awarded to Brittany Lewis," the organization said in a statement Thursday. "The Miss Delaware Pageant is proud to congratulate Brittany and wishes Amanda the very best on her future endeavors."
Longacre was immediately stripped of her title, scrubbed from the Miss Delaware website, and even forced to give back the scholarship money.
"It's like they're trying to erase me in a way, like it never happened, and it's not fair because I won outright and I deserve to represent my state,"
she said Friday during an appearance on NBC's "Today" show. "I want this chance still to go to Miss America."
Longacre is reportedly consulting with a lawyer and arguing that she provided the Miss Delaware organization with her driver's license and birth date on more than one occasion. She maintains that all her paperwork was approved by pageant officials at the local, state, and national levels.
"It was verified with a director that I was eligible to compete, as long as I was 24 at the Miss America pageant," she told the News Journal. "I competed on the local and state level and even signed my national contract and it was notarized and no one said anything to me and it was all notarized with my birthday on the contract. I gave them all the proper documents."
"I'm being treated as if I did something morally and ethically wrong," she said. "I'm just really heartbroken."
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