SEQUIM — With smiles, squeals and hugs, 16-year-old Leah Stites was crowned queen of the 108th Irrigation Festival on Saturday night.
“I have no idea what to say,” said the Sequim High School junior after she crossed the stage in her black evening gown and accepted the crown in front of a packed auditorium.
Her crowning ended a 2½-hour pageant at Sequim High School to choose four young women to represent the Sequim-Dungeness Valley during the spring festival and at other events in Western Washington this year.
Princesses Brittnie Obregon, 16, Kelsey Meyer, 17, and Julie Mullikin, 17, were also selected Saturday night and will round out the royal court as they travel around the state.
Stites’ honor was the second for her on Saturday.
Minutes before being crowned queen, she was awarded with the Tracie Sofie Memorial Award, which includes a $300 cash gift, for being voted Miss Congeniality by the other pageant contestants.
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The rest of the story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News Clallam County edition. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.