Miss College Park finishes third at statewide contest

Monday, July 10, 2006

Miss College Park Vickie Kalasinsky was awarded second runner-up at the annual Miss Maryland contest July 1 in Baltimore.

For Kalasinsky, 21, a junior at the University of Maryland who was crowned Miss College Park in March, the next stop will be at the Miss National Sweetheart Pageant, where she will vie for another title at the National Sweetcorn Festival in Hoopeston, Ill. during Labor Day weekend.

After winning about $4,500 at this Miss Maryland competition, Kalasinsky – whose baton twirling routine wowed the College Park crowd last spring – has won more than $7,000 in pageants this year, Miss College Park organizer Angie Rodriguez said, adding that those funds will go toward Kalasinsky’s education. Kalasinsky is a cell biology and molecular genetics major.

Kalasinsky has been on a whirlwind tour of the city since her Miss College Park victory, visiting community groups and local clubs and sponsors, including a short chat with the College Park City Council during a council meeting last month.

Rodriguez, who has helped Kalasinsky train for this year’s pageants and plans to escort her to Illinois next month, said the experience of competing against the state’s best at Miss Maryland will prove invaluable for Kalasinsky.

‘‘I am just as excited about going [to the Sweetheart Pageant] as if Vickie was going to Miss America,” she said. ‘‘Now that she has really gotten a taste of it, and she knows how dedicated you need to be, I think next year she really could be Miss Maryland.”