BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW) — With the 2024 Bratwurst Festival underway, new royalty has been crowned.
Thursday evening saw many hopefuls and their families anxiously waiting in Schine’s Art Park for the results of Saturday’s pageant to be announced for this year’s queen court, princess court, and junior princess court.
RESULTS
Queen – Jenna Ashley
First Runner-Up – Jasmine Tayler
Second Runner-Up – Madison Kepler
Princess – Tia McCain
First Runner-Up – Layla Csehek
Second Runner-Up – Lexi Wilson
Junior Princess – Shiana Hunter
First Runner-Up – Regan Niedermier
Second Runner-Up – Hadleigh Foght
This year’s queen, Jenna Ashley, is a seventeen-year-old senior at Bucyrus High School.
“So my family has lived here my entire life and my family has done so much for the festival. I’ve always loved the community and I just wanted to be a part and make my own history with it. I feel so excited; I’m just so happy to be able to have this year,” Ashley said when asked why she decided to run for queen this year.
Over the next year, Ashley said that she is excited to travel around with the girls on her court and to build new friendships.
When it comes to advice for younger girls looking to run for royalty someday, Ashley said to just have confidence. “Honestly, just believe in yourself and have confidence. When I first did this, I didn’t have any confidence in myself and now that I’ve worked on myself more, I’ve had so much more confidence and I just know that this would help so much.”
Ashley thanked her family for their love and support throughout the queen process.
Ashley is the first queen to come out of Bucyrus High School in many years.
Jasmine Tayler, who is sixteen and homeschooled, earned the title of first runner-up for the year.
Tayler has been a Bucyrus resident her whole life and has considered the festival to be an integral part of her family.
“I feel like being first runner-up would be a great opportunity to visit a lot of new places and share our community’s traditions with other communities,” Tayler said. “I am looking forward to the parades and waving at all the little girls, wishing they were up there with me.”
Tayler thanked her parents for their help in everything, especially her mom, who she says is like a superhero to her.
To round out this year’s queen’s court as second runner-up is fifteen-year-old Bucyrus High School sophomore, Madison Kepler.
“What made me want to run for queen is because I’ve always been scared of speaking on stage and just overall, I don’t like talking to people I don’t know, so I thought maybe, ‘Hey, I should go upstage and try this out because I think it would help me overcome my fear of talking to people on stage,’” Kepler said.
Kepler said that she was surprised and confused when she won second runner-up. “I overthink things and I just go upstage and I’m like ‘Oh if I mess one thing up I’m like ‘Oh crap I did something wrong.’’ I didn’t think I did that good and I’m not good with confidence either. I went upstage and I messed up one thing and I was like, ‘Oh crap, that’s not what I meant to do.’ I was really overwhelmed about it,” Kepler said, referring to asking judges to repeat the question at one point. “It’s okay to ask for something to be repeated, to help you get back on track. It’s not a bad thing.”
Kepler’s advice for other girls looking to run for royalty was to just go for their dreams. “If you’re overthinking it like I do, just go on stage and be like, ‘I got this, I’m not gonna mess up, I’m not gonna freak out or anything, I’m just gonna do awesome,’” Kepler said. “Just overall, think that you’re going to do great because a negative mindset just doesn’t really help. A lot of times it just brings you further down. When you keep a positive mindset, it helps you go for your goals and overall achieve everything you want.”
Kepler thanked her mom and friends for their support in her vie for queen.
Photos: Tim Klontz
