Reigning Miss Southwest Michigan Sydney Harner, of Eau Claire, will vie for the title of Miss Michigan along with 31 other candidates from all over the state Saturday. 

 

Contestants compete interview, fitness, evening gown and onstage question during two nights of preliminary competition. 

 

Points are tallied and the top 10 are announced on Saturday night, when a new Miss Michigan is crowned. 

 

Miss Michigan goes on to compete for the title of Miss America in September in Atlantic City. 

 

Sydney, 21, was named Miss Southwest last October from a field of 18 young women.  She will be attending Columbia University in the fall. 

 

She is the daughter of Anita and Brian Harner. 

 

Her platform is “Building Confidence Through the Challenges of Speech Impediments and will perform an upbeat jazz dance to Aretha Franklin’s “Think,” dressed in a fire-engine-red-and-black sequined costume.