Jul 19, 2017 2 min read

WIND RIDGE – It’s been one heck of a summer for 16-year-old Courtney Ross of Aleppo Township. Not only did her softball team bring home a state softball championship to West Greene, but Tuesday night Ross was crowned Jacktown Fair queen.

“It’s very exciting to be able to do it all in one summer,” she said.

The pageant was held Sunday evening when contestants had to do an interview on stage and model evening gowns, with Ross and Haley Pierson, a recent West Greene graduate, competing for the title.

After the annual parade that opened the first night of the 152nd fair Tuesday, Ross was announced as the winner and crowned by Laura Wise, 19, of Graysville, who was the 2016 Jacktown Fair queen.

“I just love being the little kids’ role model and someone they can look up to,” she said.

Ross, who shows sheep at the Jacktown and Greene County fairs each year, said this was her first time competing in a pageant. She said she was nervous waiting from Sunday until Tuesday night for the results and compared it to her nerves on the bus with her softball team, when they were on their way to the state championship game last month.

“That was a different kind of nerve-racking,” she said.

The West Greene softball team was grand marshal of the parade this year, coming through the gates on a flatbed float with the coaches in the front. The team was then honored at the grandstand with several rounds of applause.

Their head coach, Bill Simms, read their numbers and names for the audience. He said they were proud of their back-to-back successful seasons and “found a way to win one for the entire community.”

The Jacktown Fair will continue through Saturday. For a list of events, visit www.jacktownfair.org.