Abbie Stockard, Miss Alabama 2024, was crowned Miss America 2025 on Sunday night at the Walt Disney Theater in Orlando, Florida.

Stockard, 22, will receive a $50,000 in scholarship money as Miss America and immediately start a yearlong reign. Stockard, from Birmingham, is a student at Auburn University, where she majors in nursing. Her goal is to earn an advanced degree, a doctorate of nurse anesthesia practice, and specialize in pediatrics.

READ: Miss Alabama thanks her home state before Miss America finals: ‘Your support means the world’

Stockard is the fourth Miss Alabama to win Miss America, following in the footsteps of previous winners Diedre Downs, Miss America 2005; Heather Whitestone, Miss America 1995; and Yolande Betbeze, Miss America 1951.

Miss America 2024, Madison Marsh, crowned her successor at Sunday’s finals competition, which streamed on the Miss America YouTube channel and PageantVision.com.

Stockard received a glittering crown and a bouquet of roses at the end of the ceremony. She also received hugs from her fellow contestants and took her first walk on stage as Miss America 2025.

Stockard was prominently featured throughout the finals on Sunday, competing in evening gown, talent, fitness and “Hot Topics” segments. (The “Hot Topics” questions focused on technology, immigration, health care, climate change, censorship and more.) For talent, Stockard performed a contemporary dance to Lauren Daigle’s “You Say.”

Also, Miss Alabama was one of six women who earned the AHA Go Red for Women Leadership Award at Miss America, in affiliation with the American Heart Association. These awards go to contestants who promote women’s heart health in their communities.

“As I step into this evening, I am filled with excitement, honor, and gratitude,” Stockard said in an Instagram post before the finals. “Thanking the Lord for placing me here this week and giving me one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Regardless of the outcome, I want to express my deepest thanks to my friends, family, the amazing Miss Alabama board, and the wonderful people of Alabama for making me feel so appreciated and loved. I hope I’ve made you proud and represented you well.”

A total of 52 women competed in the Miss America finals, from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Aside from Stockard, the top five finalists were:

• Miss Texas 2024, Annette Addo-Yobo (first runner-up)
• Miss Tennessee 2024, Carley Vogel (second runner-up)
• Miss Florida 2024, Casana Fink (third runner-up)
• Miss Ohio 2024, Stephanie Finoti (fourth runner-up)

The runners-up each received $10,000 in scholarship money, according to the Miss America organization.

The top 11 were:

• Miss Alabama 2024, Abbie Stockard
• Miss Florida 2024, Casana Fink
• Miss Texas 2024, Annette Addo-Yobo
• Miss Wisconsin 2024, Mandi Genord
• Miss South Carolina 2024, Davis Wash
• Miss Colorado 2024, Alexandra Lotko
• Miss Oklahoma 2024, Lauren Frost
• Miss Georgia 2024, Ludwidg Louizaire
• Miss Minnesota 2024, Emily Schumacher
• Miss Tennessee 2024, Carley Vogel
• Miss Ohio 2024, Stephanie Finoti

Terrence Jenkins, an actor and TV personality known as “Terrence J,” was the host of Sunday’s finals ceremony, along with model and actress Nikki Novak.

Judges for the Miss America finals included Heather Whitestone McCallum, the Dothan native who was named Miss America 1995. She moved on to the national pageant in September 1994, after winning the title of Miss Alabama earlier that year. Whitestone McCallum lost her hearing in early childhood due to a severe ear infection, and was the first deaf woman to win Miss America. She became a strong advocate for people with disabilities, regained her hearing in 2002 through a cochlear implant and lives in Georgia with her husband and four sons.

Other judges for the Miss America finals were Olympic medalist Carl Lewis, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Stayce D. Harris, Miss America 1985 Sharlene Wells Hawkes and “Cheer” star Gabi Butler.

The past week has been a busy one for the Miss America organization. Miss America’s Teen, a sister pageant to Miss America, announced its 2025 winner on Saturday, also at the Walt Disney Theater. Peyton Bolling took the national crown, competing as Miss Arkansas’ Teen. Ali Mims, Miss Alabama’s Teen, was named first runner-up.

READ: Miss Arkansas wins Miss America’s Teen 2025; Miss Alabama is first runner-up

After a breakout season in which he was the program’s starting right tackle, Alabama Crimson Tide offensive lineman Elijah Pritchett is set to enter the NCAA transfer portal according to reports Saturday night.

Pritchett is likely one of the biggest names from Alabama’s roster to enter the transfer portal, and brings the Crimson Tide’s total number of portal entrants to 25 this offseason.

Alabama football 2024-25 offseason transfer portal tracker

A former highly-rated four-star prospect in Alabama’s 2022 recruiting class, Pritchett was primarily a reserve during the 2022 and 2023 seasons with the Crimson Tide, but as mentioned previously, took the next step this past fall. This included becoming Alabama’s starting right tackle in 2024, a position that he held for a majority of the year.

Pritchett is now the third different Alabama offensive lineman to enter the transfer portal so far this offseason, joining a pair of 2024 reserves in Miles McVay and Naquil Betrand.

BREAKING: Alabama starting OT Elijah Pritchett plans to enter the Transfer Portal, he tells @on3sports

The 6’6 330 OT started in all 13 games for the Crimson Tide this season

2 years of eligibility remaining https://t.co/RlUbB6Fk7q pic.twitter.com/MdEs8N0I9L

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) January 4, 2025

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nate Oats told his team that he wanted them to set the tone for the rest of the season by dominating its first Southeastern Conference games. No. 5 Alabama accomplished that mission in its first home matchup, rolling No. 12 Oklahoma 107-79 Saturday.

The Crimson Tide’s blowout victory not only showcased its elite talent and deep roster but also the team’s improvement in confidence and unselfishness playing as a unit. The Tide shared the wealth all game, which allowed it to bully Oklahoma on the glass, create second-chance opportunities, run out in transition and rack up 20 assists as a team to just nine turnovers.

The best representation of the Tide’s unselfishness Saturday came from its star player. Fifth-year guard Mark Sears led the Tide in scoring with 22 points but was far more proud of setting up his teammates. He ended the game with a double-double that included a career-high 10 assists, which demonstrated growth that Oats thinks will be critical for his side going forward.

“You could see his energy when his teammates were scoring, which is great,” Oats said. “We need that out of him. He was more excited about getting 10 assists — I mean, I think you saw when he hit [Aden] Holloway for one 3, that was his ninth and he was all fired up. Then he got Jarin [Stevenson] on the roll for his 10th. I was happy to see that. We talk about Mudita — vicarious joy through others’ success. Mark was really happy for his teammates scoring, particularly off his passes tonight, but thought it was good.”

For Oats, Saturday’s win can serve as a launchpad for a team with plenty of newcomers still figuring out how to play with one another. Alabama has been hit with the injury bug and had to readjust after Latrell Wrightsell Jr. was knocked out for the season with an Achilles tear. Other players like Chris Youngblood and Houston Mallette have had to get up to speed after missing the beginning of the season.

“We’ve kind of figured ourselves some,” Oats said. “I still think there’s a lot of chemistry that has to be figured out because some of these guys haven’t played that much together. So we’re still figuring some of our chemistry stuff out but I think our offensive rebounding and our ability to get to the free throw line has been big for this team.”

Youngblood in particular has demonstrated the kind of unselfishness required for a player who is still finding his confidence this season. The South Florida transfer is still working his way back to full fitness and finding his rhythm shooting after a leg injury kept him sidelined until mid-December.

Alabama has big expectations for what Youngblood can do when he’s 100%, but he hasn’t let his injury prevent him from contributing in other ways right away while his shot isn’t falling. In 20 minutes against the Sooners, Youngblood finished with nine points and eight rebounds, including a team-leading four offensive boards and had a plus-17 box plus-minus rating.

“Chris is the ultimate competitor,” Oats said. “He hates losing at anything. He’s gonna talk, be aggressive. He’s gonna try to be physical. He had a couple fouls where maybe he was trying to do some stuff like that. He’s gotta be a little bit better with that, but he’s gonna get to the O Boards. He’s gonna try to use his strength. He’s a strong kid. He’s strong and competitive so he’s gonna make plays like that.”

Performances like Sears’ and Youngblood’s and others helped Alabama get off to the strong start Oats was looking for in its first home conference game. Now, the Tide will look to accomplish step two in Oats’ plan of early league domination turning into a trophy in March.

Alabama will head on the road to face South Carolina on Wednesday. The Gamecocks haven’t had the best season by the SEC’s high standards, but Oats knows Alabama will have to play with the same kind of togetherness and unselfishness, to pick up a win on the road.

The Tide’s first SEC victory should serve as a massive confidence boost and a roadmap to future victories in conference play. The next step is displaying the dominance it showed for most of the game against Oklahoma on both ends of the court for an entire game.

“I thought the first 20 minutes was exactly what we needed to see out of these guys on a nightly basis. I thought we came out with the right mindset. I thought our walkthrough was sharp. Our trainer told me that the guys were really locked in as soon as they got here in the morning. It was a great day of prep. I thought it was good preparation coming in. We had some really good practices and got a week off. It’s what we need.”

“Now can we do it consistently and honestly, can we do it for 40 minutes? We didn’t do it for 40 tonight we did it for maybe 20 or 30. We got up 28 on them with I think 12-something to go in the second half is what they had. To be up 28 with 13 minutes to go in the half and then finish at 28, they played us even for the last 13 minutes which is a little disappointing. But I think for the first 27 minutes of that game we had the edge we needed.”

Alabama will face South Carolina at 6 p.m. CT Wednesday inside Colonial Life Arena. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.