Local contestant wins Miss Arkansas prelim

Miss Crowley's Ridge Bethany Bell of Blytheville won the Preliminary Artistic Expression in Talent award Thursday, the second night of competition at the 2011 Miss Arkansas Pageant at Summit Arena in Hot Springs.

Bell is an 18-year-old student at Arkansas Northeastern College.

For her winning talent selection, she performed "Warsaw Concerto" on piano.

Bell also won the Alpha ("newcomers") award for her group. Competition continues with more preliminaries tonight.

Final competition is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday and includes the naming of the Top 10 semi-finalists.