The 12^th installment of the Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen Pageant got under way Thursday night at the Vicksburg Auditorium, and two preliminary winners were named.

Miss Delta Blue’s Outstanding Teen Grace McAllister won the talent portion of the competition and Miss Meridian’s Outstanding Teen Liz Sprabery won in evening gown and on-stage question.

Grace, who performed a lyrical dance to “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” is the daughter of Christie McAllister of Nettleton.

“I originally started out with a plane old lyrical dance, but when my teacher saw that I could do chest rolls she put them in the dance,” Grace said.

“Claudia Taylor is my dance teacher, and she is an amazing choreographer.”

Grace said she has taken dance for two years at the Art in Motion Studio.

She said she became interested in dance after her sister got a scholarship to the studio, and her mother called to see if she too, could take dance.

“I’ve been watching Dance Moms, and I really like the show, so I wanted to be in dance.”

Liz is the daughter of Pat Spraybery and Donna Spraybery of Meridian, and for the evening gown portion of the competition she wore a blue evening gown with a long train attached.

“It is a dress I found at a trunk show and the first time I tried it on I fell in love with it.

I walked out on a stage that was solid black, and I looked in the mirror and I said ‘I can walk down the runway in this and feel beautiful, and that is exactly how I felt tonight,” Liz said.

Liz’s on-stage question was, “If you could place three items in a time capsule to represents teens today what would they be?”

She responded with “a cell phone, a book and a piece of art.”

“A cell phone represents just about every teenager. A book represents a majority of teenagers especially myself because I really love to read, and a piece of art because teens are really in touch with the arts.”

As preliminary competition winners, both Grace and Liz each received a $150 scholarship.

Emcees for the evening were 2015 Miss Mississippi Hannah Roberts and Morgan Burnett, who was 2008 Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen.

The Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen preliminary competitions will continue tonight at 901 Monroe St., and the final night of competition and crowning will be held Saturday.

All competitions begin at 8 p.m. and tickets are $25 for the remaining preliminary competition and $40 for the final night.

The Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen Pageant is the sister pageant to the Miss Mississippi Pageant, which is scheduled to run June 22 through 25 at the Vicksburg Convention Center.