Miss Virginia 2014 Preliminary Winners Prepare for Saturday Finale

The Miss Virginia 2014 preliminary competition kicked off Thursday amidst a flurry of sparkles and a whirlwind of talent.

Miss Chesterfield Savannah Lane of Chesterfield took home the Preliminary Talent Award for her rendition of "Defying Gravity" from the Broadway musical "Wicked." Lane won a $1,000 scholarship from the Margaret R. Baker Charitable Foundation. She is a foreign affairs and Arabic student at the University of Virginia.

Miss Dominion Veronica Robinson of Woodbridge won the Preliminary Swimsuit competition, taking home a $500 scholarship also awarded by the Margaret R. Baker Charitable Foundation. Robinson is a pre-med student studying exercise science at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The event plans to allocate a record-breaking $300,000 in cash and in-kind scholarships to contestants in the Miss Virginia pageant, the Roanoke Times reports. The winner of this year's pageant will receive a $17,500 scholarship advance to the 2015 Miss America competition in Atlantic City, N.J. in September.

Half of the Miss Virginia 2014 contestants competed Thursday in swimsuit, talent and eveningwear while the remaining contestants will compete Friday evening.

Don't miss the rest of the 2014 Miss Virginia preliminary competition, which continues Friday at 7:30 p.m. on WSET (a pre-show begins at 7 p.m.) The finale takes place Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets for Friday ($40) and Saturday ($50) are available through the Roanoke Civic Center.

Go to missva.com to vote for your favorite contestant. Each vote costs 99 cents and voting remains open until 10 p.m. Friday.