Congratulations to the beautiful and talented Mallory Hagan, Miss New York, who was crowned Miss America 2013 Friday in front of a roaring crowd of supporters in Las Vegas. Mallory dominated the onstage question segment by giving her stance on armed guards in schools. “I don’t think the proper way to fight violence is with violence,” Hagan said. The self-described class clown also performed an entertaining and energetic tap dance to James Brown’s “Get up offa that thing.”

Among the other contestants, some notable stories emerged in the weeks leading up to competition. Miss Washington DC, Allyn Rose, received some fall out after the show aired for her decision to undergo an elective double mastectomy procedure to prevent the onset of breast cancer. The disease runs in her family, claiming the lives of her mother, grandmother, and great aunt, and she built her platform upon breast cancer prevention and awareness.

This year’s youngest competitor, Miss Montana Alexis Wineman, advanced in competition after winning the America’s Choice Award by receiving the most online votes. Wineman was (and still is) the target of a lot of media attention due to being diagnosed with a form of autism at a young age. Her platform, ‘”Normal is Just a Dryer Setting’ – Living with Autism” certainly coincides with her talent, stand-up comedy, although Miss Montana was eliminated before she could make us all laugh.

Miss Iowa Mariah Cary tripped over her words in the question and answer portion of the pageant when she tried to field a question about legalizing marijuana. Cary started off strong, mentioning its medical capacities, before blurting out, “However, I don’t think it should be used for anything but recreational use and health care.” Whoops. 

Some fun facts about Miss New York Miss America Mallory Hagan: She’s actually from Alabama! She studied at Auburn before moving to The Big Apple to get her degree from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. She hopes to go into global cosmetic marketing. Her rockin’ bod won the swimsuit competition, and she attributes that to fish, asparagus, and P90X. Finally, among her many new responsibilities, Hagan will spend much of her reign as Miss America raising money and awareness for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Congrats, girl!

In case you missed it, here is the competition from intros to the crowning moment.

Now tell us what you think! Who was your pick for Miss America? What do you think about the controversial contestants?