Tennessee
When is Miss America 2025? Where to watch the pageant who is representing Tennessee
New year rings in with unique and funny drops across the country
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It’s time to crown a new Miss America.
On Sunday, Jan. 5, women from every U.S. state, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, will compete for the revered title of Miss America and its $50,000 scholarship.
Younger women, ages 13 to 18, will take the stage one day prior on Saturday, Jan. 4, for the opportunity to earn the Miss America’s Teen title and an equal scholarship.
It’s a more than 100-year-old annual competition. Miss America originated in 1921 in Atlantic City as the “bathing beauty revue,” according to Miss America. The first woman to win was Margaret Gorman.
Soon, another deserving woman will wear the iconic four-point crown, representing her qualities of service, style, scholarship, and success.
Here’s how to watch this year’s competition.
When is the Miss America pageant?
Miss America finals will begin at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 5. A coronation party is set to follow the event, according to the Miss America schedule.
When is the Miss America’s Teen pageant?
Miss America’s Teen finals will begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 4. A coronation party is set to follow the event, according to the Miss America schedule.
How to watch Miss America
The final round is set to air live across all time zones globally on YouTube as well as on PageantVision.com.
Replay videos of the preliminary rounds and talent competitions are also available for streaming on PageantVision through 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 5.
Where is the Miss America 2025 competition?
The Miss America organization hosts its scholarship competition at the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida. The preliminary rounds of the competition began on Dec. 31, 2024.
Who is Miss Tennessee?
Carley Vogel, formerly Miss Music City, was crowned Miss Tennessee in June of 2024. She is a student at Middle Tennessee State University, majoring in music business with a minor in musical theater. Vogel is also a sister of Zeta Tau Alpha.
She is a Donate Life Ambassador, where she helps to raise awareness for organ, eye and tissue donation, according to Donate Life Tennessee.
Already in the Miss America competition, Vogel won the Preliminary Talent award for her vocal performance of “Climb Every Mountain.”
Who is Miss Tennessee’s Teen?
18-year-old Leela Beaty is the current Miss Tennessee’s Teen titleholder.
Her community service initiative is “Lean on Us,” encouraging people to embrace their differences, according to Miss Tennessee.
Before being crowned as Miss America’s Teen, Beaty held the title of Miss Central Tennessee’s Teen.
Which previous Miss America winners are from Tennessee?
Kellye Cash is the only Miss Tennessee to win the Miss America title. She won Miss Tennessee in 1986 and was crowned Miss America in 1987, according to Miss Tennessee.
Tennessee
Tennessee baseball adds pitcher Ricky Ojeda, UC Irvine transfer
Tennessee baseball received a commitment from UC Irvine pitcher Ricky Ojeda on June 19.
Ojeda, who is eligible for the MLB draft in July, announced his decision on social media. He visited Tennessee on June 15-16.
The lefthanded Ojeda had a strong 2026 season primarily as a reliever, posting a 3.77 ERA with 62 strikeouts and 20 walks in 62 innings. In 2025, he became the first reliever to be named Big West Pitcher of the Year after going 13-1 with a 3.55 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 66 innings, which also earned him a third-team all-American nod from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Perfect Game.
Whether Ojeda makes it to Tennessee remains an open question. Perfect Game ranked him as the No. 179 prospect for the draft. That would place him in the sixth round.
Should Ojeda join the staff, however, he would instantly become one of the team’s top options out of a bullpen that struggled immensely in 2026. The pitching staff is also under new leadership under pitching coach Austin Knight, who was hired from ECU.
Ojeda is the fourth player to announce they will transfer to Tennessee this offseason, joining two-way Mercer transfer Braydon Kersey, Northwestern State pitcher Brody Trosclair and Air Force infielder Wyatt Hanoian.
Who’s leaving Tennessee baseball
- UTL Jay Abernathy (Oklahoma)
- RHP Nic Abraham
- INF Ariel Antigua (Arizona)
- INF Finley Bates
- RHP Ari Bethea
- OF Hutson Chance
- RHP Sawyer Deering (San Diego State)
- OF Nate Eisfelder
- 1B Evan Hankins (Virginia Tech)
- UTL Hunter High
- RHP Brayden Krenzel (Arkansas)
- INF Manny Marin
- INF Ethan Moore (Missouri)
- UTL Chris Newstrom
- LHP Taylor Tracey
- C Cash Williams (West Virginia)
Who’s joining Tennessee baseball
- RHP/DH Braydon Kersey
- LHP Brody Trosclair
- INF Wyatt Hanoian
- LHP Ricky Ojeda
Emmett Siegel covers Tennessee baseball for Knox News. Email: emmett.siegel@knoxnews.com; X: @EmmettSiegel_
Tennessee
Shooting Hunger event aims to prevent childhood hunger in West Tennessee
JACKSON, Tenn. (WBBJ) – An exciting day of sporting clays in West Tennessee is doubling as a major fight against hunger.
Today’s “Shooting Hunger” event took place at the Carroll County Shooting Sports Park in Huntingdon. It’s a partnership between Tennessee Farm Bureau, Tennessee Farmers Co-Op, Farm Credit Mid-America and Rural First.
Since 2015, Shooting Hunger has helped provide more than three million meals to Tennesseans with money going to food banks, backpack programs, and local hunger relief. A $500 scholarship will also go to the top youth shooter in each flight.
“We’re joining together to raise money for school backpacks to feed hungry kids. We do these, we actually do three of these across the state of Tennessee so at the end of the day we take, we take all the money we put it into a pile and when we divide equally amongst all 95 counties across the state of Tennessee,“ said Bryan Wright, executive vice president for the Tennessee Farm Bureau.
Organizers say events like this matter because one in six children in Tennessee struggle with hunger.
Copyright 2026 WBBJ. All rights reserved.
Tennessee
Inside Tennessee 4×100 relay’s NCAA title, outlasting four botched exchanges
Tennessee director of track and field Duane Ross gauged the hunger of the men’s 4×100-meter relay team to pull off the upset.
“They said, ‘Coach, we’re going to win,’ ” Ross said. “When they bring you that much confidence, you can grab your popcorn and enjoy the meet.”
No popcorn was consumed, but the appetite was there from the start.
Traunard Folson, Davonte Howell, T’Mars McCallum and Elijah Clark finished in a school record time of 37.98 seconds at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 12 in Eugene, Oregon. It was the the program’s first national title in the 4×100 since 1983 and the fourth-fastest in NCAA history.
Four other relay teams never crossed the line. Auburn, the two-time defending champion, had run an NCAA-record 37.75 in the semifinal, but had a botched handoff on the last exchange. Arkansas, the reigning SEC champion, also dropped its baton, along with Oregon and Houston.
McCallum said staying clean through a race of chaos starts with a focus on winning, even in practice.
“In the moment we can’t really worry about anything else, just what we can control,” McCallum said on June 18. “We came to practice every time with the idea of, ‘OK, we’ve got to make sure this is fixed, because we know if we run that time, we can win.’ “
It was the final event of McCallum’s college career. It didn’t fully hit until the long flight home to Knoxville.
“I was like, we really did it,” he said. “Now we have a school record, the first team to ever go under 38 seconds here.”
Whether belief had anything to do with what went wrong in those four other lanes isn’t something Tennessee’s runners can answer. It’s exactly what they point to for why theirs didn’t.
Clark, a freshman who ran the anchor leg, said winning was just a matter of starting the race.
“We knew we had it the whole time,” he said. “No matter who did what, what happened, we knew what the outcome would come to.”
Ross said the victory wasn’t a surprise inside the program either.
“I wouldn’t say unsung,” Ross said. “I’ve watched this team all year long, and we were expecting to come out of there with the championship. It was a tight competition down to the last event.”
Tennessee finished third in the men’s team standings with 46 points, its best total since 2002.
Howell, a junior who ran the second leg, said the belief behind the relay team’s confidence was built long before the race.
“Three of the four of us already ran under 10 seconds,” he said. “Last year we all trained together during the summer, all lived together. We already had the bond, and adding the freshman on anchor was just a cherry on top. He figured it out at SECs, ran a 10.1, season’s best, and we trusted him to bring it home.”
Clark said the title is already part of something bigger to him.
“The goal is to always make history,” said Clark, who was hired by Tennessee four years ago after a successful run at North Carolina A&T. “It’s been one of my dreams. To be able to be on the wall, especially at a school like this, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
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