THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260382
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID REED, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Amber Medlin was crowned Tuesday as Miss Virginia, marking the first time a runner-up has taken the place of a dethroned Miss Virginia.
Medlin succeeded Andrea Ballengee, who was stripped of the title last week for exaggerating her academic record.
``It's been quite an interesting quest for me,'' said Medlin, who was first runner-up to Ballengee in the July 1 pageant in Roanoke.
Medlin was summoned Friday to Roanoke, the day after pageant officials announced Ballengee's ouster. But Medlin was not crowned until five days later - after pageant officials had verified all her credentials.
Medlin, 23, said she had to produce documents from as far back as junior high, when she won a music contest in her hometown of Virginia Beach. Pageant officials also checked her membership in academic honors clubs, previous beauty contest titles and her high school and college transcripts.
The only discrepancy they found was that Medlin had rounded off her college grade-point average from 2.957 to 3.0.
Ballengee claimed she had a 3.6 grade-point average at Virginia Tech and said she was a member of the academic fraternity Phi Beta Kappa. Virginia Tech officials later told pageant board members her grade-point average was far short of the 3.6 required to belong to Phi Beta Kappa.
The board at first backed Ballengee, saying earlier this month her misstatements were unintentional. They stripped her of the title last week after the board learned she had not been accepted at the University of Miami law school as she claimed.
Medlin, who worked as a waitress and clerk at a Virginia Beach restaurant before she became Miss Virginia, said she felt requiring contestants to document their claims is good for the pageant.
``I felt a little bit like a criminal getting all those documents, but I think it is good that the pageant is doing this,'' she said.
In Tuesday's coronation, pageant President Robert Bennett gave Medlin the crown that was taken from Ballengee. Medlin also received keys to the new sports car her predecessor drove and keys to the apartment Ballengee was forced to vacate.
Medlin will represent Virginia in the Sept. 16 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J. She said she did not think her chances in the Miss America contest were damaged by the scandal.
``I think we all compete against ourselves'' in a pageant, she said.
Medlin said she hopes to restore credibility to the Virginia pageant.
``I hope I can bring it back to where it belongs,'' she said. ``I am over this, but maybe it will take a little work to get Virginians over this.''
She said she was not disappointed to win the crown by default.
``It just came a little bit early. I was prepared to compete next July and was hoping to wear this crown next summer.''
Medlin represented Virginia Beach in the pageant and won the swimsuit competition. She had also competed in the pageant in 1993 and 1994.
Ballengee, 21, won the pageant on her fourth try, representing Hampton and Newport News. ILLUSTRATION: Color AP photo
Amber Medlin
KEYWORDS: MISS VIRGINIA PAGEANT by CNB