One pageant veteran and a first-time competitor took the top honors Friday night in the final night of preliminaries in the Miss Mississippi 2006 Pageant at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Miss Hattiesburg Rachael Shannon won the swimwear competition, and Miss Magnolia Shannon Essenpreis won talent for her vocal rendition of &#8220As If We Never Said Goodbye” from the musical &#8220Sunset Boulevard.”

&#8220I’m so excited. I worked very hard going to the gym every day. It finally paid off,” said Shannon, 20, a Terry native and a junior at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Essenpreis, also 20, said she couldn’t be happier.

&#8220I’m absolutely on cloud nine,” said the Garland, Texas, native, who is a junior at the University of Mississippi.

The preliminary competition is judged in evening wear, talent, swimwear and on-stage questioning. A winner is named in talent and swimwear each preliminary night. Scores from the preliminary nights, along with judges’ interviews throughout the week, will determine the Top 10, who will be announced at the beginning of tonight’s live telecast of the pageant on Jackson’s NBC station, WLBT-TV3.

The Top 10 will compete again in areas of evening gown, swimwear and talent during tonight’s competition, at the end of which Miss Mississippi 2005 Kristian Dambrino will crown the young woman who will take her place.

Nearly all of the 2,000 seats at the convention center were filled all three nights of the preliminary competitions, and few tickets remain available for tonight, said Wayne Sutter, Miss Mississippi Pageant Board of Trustees executive secretary.

Shannon and Essenpreis join a long list of winners from the first two nights of preliminaries. Miss University Tara Tutor took the swimwear win Wednesday night, along with Miss Heritage Emily Senter and Miss Itawamba Community College Corie Philece Stanford, who tied in talent. On Thursday night, Miss Byram Tri-County Taryn Foshee won talent, and there was a four-way tie in the swimwear competition shared by Miss W Ashley Nicole Owen, Miss Tupelo Amy Bright, Miss Meridian Ashley Buckman and Miss Dixieland Amanda-Paige Whittington. All of Thursday night’s swimwear winners were competing for the first time this year except for Whittington, who competed three years ago as Miss Jones County.

Each preliminary talent winner receives a $300 scholarship, and preliminary swimwear winners receive a $200 scholarship.

Today is the last day fans will be able to text message votes for their favorite contestants during the second annual Cellular South Viewer’s Choice contest. The contestant who receives the most votes will win a $2,500 viewers’ choice scholarship, to be announced tonight.

Pageant attendees, including non-Cellular South customers and any wireless users who do not subscribe to text messaging, can cast text message votes on-site during the pageant. Cellular South wireless phones will be available in the lobby of the Vicksburg Convention Center tonight until 9, when voting closes. For a list of the contestants’ assigned numbers, visit www.missmississippipageant.com or any Cellular South retail location.

Forty-three women ages 17 to 24 are competing for this year’s crown. The winner will advance to the Miss America Pageant, which will be in Los Angeles Sept. 5-13.

The Miss Mississippi Pageant is in its 71st year. This is Vicksburg’s 49th year as its host city.