Miss Delaware Stripped of Crown Because Officials Say She Is Too Old




06/27/2014 at 12:55 PM EDT




Miss Delaware Amanda Longacre Stripped of Crown for Being Too Old


Miss Delaware Amanda Longacre


NBC10



Age is not just a number for beauty queens.

Now-former Miss Delaware 2014 Amanda Longacre, 24, found that out on Tuesday, when pageant officials reviewed her paperwork and determined that she is too old to compete in the Miss America Pageant in September, NBC News reported.


While officials said the Bear, Delaware, native did nothing wrong, Longacre was not only stripped of her title two weeks after winning it, but also $11,000 in scholarship money that she planned to use to pursue a master's degree in social work at the University of Pennsylvania, according to the report. She had already notified the university that she would have to sit out for a year to fulfill her pageant duties and now wonders if they will allow her to return.


Longacre provided documentation of her age when she competed for her state title, and said she was told that as long as she was 24 during the time of the Miss America pageant in September – she turns 25 Oct. 22 – she was fine. But officials reviewed her paperwork after her win and determined she would age out.


"Following the Miss Delaware Pageant, it was determined that Amanda Longacre exceeded the age requirement in order to be eligible to compete," pageant officials said in a statement, according to USA Today.


Her first runner-up, Brittany Lewis of Wilmington, was crowned the winner on Thursday, leaving Longacre stung by her ouster.


"I was told I could compete by people who have been doing this for 30 years," she said. "I did everything right and it was all in front of them."


Longacre said she has heard nothing from Miss America officials after she was notified of the problem in Delaware. Her profile has been removed from pageant's Facebook page after state officials announced a new winner.


"They deleted me off of everything, they're ignoring me," she told NBC News. "I can fulfill this job. I did nothing morally or ethically wrong. Now I'm getting all the repercussions."






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