Irwin’s Victoria Piekut feels like a winner even without Miss USA crown

SHIRLEY MCMARLIN | Thursday, November 12, 2020 9:56 a.m.

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Victoria Piekut didn’t come home from Memphis with the Miss USA crown, but she said she still feels like a winner.

The Irwin resident and reigning Miss Pennsylvania USA competed in pageant activities that culminated Nov. 9 with Asya Branch, the first Black woman to be crowned Miss Mississippi USA, named as Miss USA.

“This really was my goal, to compete in Miss USA, and I achieved that dream,” Piekut said. “There’s a saying out there that you’re more likely to have a son compete in the Super Bowl than to have a daughter compete for Miss USA. So I’m perfectly happy.”

And that’s not all.

“Something I gained in this whole process was that I now have a friend in each of the 50 states,” she said.

Piekut spent more than a week in Memphis for the competition, which was held at Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate.

“Going into it, I was very calm,” she said. “I was thinking that whatever happened was part of God’s plan for my life. I competed in the preliminaries, in the swimsuit and evening gown, but I didn’t place in the top 16.

“It was a very different experience because of all the covid protocols,” she said. “We were in face masks and socially distanced, but we still got to get out into Memphis and tour Elvis’ home and the (National) Civil Rights Museum and see some other sights.”

Piekut is a 2014 Norwin High School graduate who entered her first pageant in 2012 at age 16 as a way to bolster her vocal performance resume. At the time, she was studying opera at Duquesne University’s City Music Center.

She was named first runner-up in that National American Miss competition and later earned the title of 2015 International Junior Miss Teen.

“I think I’m probably retired from my pageant career now,” she said. “I started when I was 16, so it’s been almost a decade now.”

Her first order of business upon returning home from Memphis was to catch up on her sleep.

“I slept for about 12 hours straight,” she said.

Next up is unpacking the many bags of wardrobe and makeup she had to take on the trip, before getting back to business as co-owner of Wight Elephant Boutique, which has storefronts in Irwin and Greensburg.

“I’ve been removed from the boutique for so long in getting ready for Miss USA,” she said. “I’ll have to catch up with what’s going on, especially with the holidays coming up.”

And there will be one last walk on the runway in April — and maybe another chance to wear her Miss USA custom-made Sherri Hill gown— when she hands off her crown to the next Miss Pennsylvania USA.

https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/irwins-victoria-piekut-feels-like-a-winner-even-without-miss-usa-crown/