Getting to know Samantha Toney, Miss Indiana USA

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A little bit of Hoosier royalty stopped by Dawn on Friday.

Samantha Toney, of Clarksville, was topped Miss Indiana USA on Sunday in Noblesville. She took residence the title in her seventh 12 months of competitors.

Toney tells Information 8 that she competed for thus a few years partly as a strategy to honor her mom, who died when Toney was simply three years outdated.

“She was solely 34, and if I solely had 34 years on this earth, what would I wish to do with it? I’d wish to make it as significant and as fulfilling as doable,” Toney mentioned. “That’s why I proceed to push on and I proceed to persevere as a result of I knew that the second that this occurred, she can be so proud.”

Toney was named first runner-up 3 times earlier than lastly profitable the crown. She says working so exhausting and getting so near the title was troublesome.

“You’re at all times instructed rising up, , for those who work exhausting sufficient you possibly can accomplish it, however these have been simply ‘nos’ and ‘not yets,’” Toney mentioned. “There’s a time and there’s a spot for me to have this title, for me to have this job, and I simply encourage you, when you’ve got a dream…there’s only one extra strive in you that may actually take you to that dream.”

Toney says she attracts energy from a troublesome time in her life. Three days earlier than she was set to audition for a job as an NFL cheerleader, she was in a automobile accident on Interstate 65. A semi hit her automobile and he or she went head-on right into a concrete median at about 70 mph.

“I used to be within the hospital for about three days…and in a again brace for six months,” Toney mentioned. “And that was, as soon as once more, only a setback. It was only one factor that held me again, however I persevere. I simply…I at all times wish to ensure that I overcome something that’s ever in my method.”

She recovered from her accidents and spent a number of years as an Indianapolis Colts cheerleader.

As she begins her time as Miss Indiana USA, Toney’s message to others is that this: Rise above your circumstances.

“Be sure that if there’s one thing standing in your method, that you understand how to push ahead and you understand how to persevere by way of that in order that your targets are achieved, as a result of, mine was — and it was on my seventh and ultimate strive,” Toney mentioned.