MOUNT VERNON — Not one but two Fredericktown High School graduates were awarded the title of Knox County Fair 2022 King and Queen.
Isaiah Van Slyke and Anna Maglott, both spring Fredericktown graduates, received their awards Sunday. It was a little different than previous years.
Jack Laymon and Macy Thorne were named the Knox County Junior Fair King and Queen last year.
In previous years, the Junior Fair King and Queen crowning would occur Sunday morning — the first day of the fair. Contestants would give a speech and answer questions from judges, then they would converse and select a winner.
This year, the Junior Fair changed the process to allow for better pre-fair preparation. Contestants filled out an application and went through an interview process with a panel of judges spanning across the county.
Thus, the royalty crowning is no longer at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
“It’s already crowned,” Samantha Beheler, Junior Fair Coordinator, said. “So basically what we did was we did kind of like a program, I would say. So we actually had a royalty breakfast to where everyone could come in and then we crowned them there.”
The process was changed, in part, because of logistics, Beheler added.
“It was just nice to have all of that done before the fair, just for the simple fact that tonight we had a training with them of how to do a proper introduction and hot to dress, so that way we weren’t teaching them at the fair,” she said.
“So as much as I don’t necessarily like that we don’t have them not being here and being announced here, I do appreciate the fact we’re able to train them a little bit more before the fair and then be a little bit more prepared and have their magnets made, their sashed made and those type of things.”
Though Slyke and Maglott are both Fredericktown graduates, they share completely different animals at the fair.
Slyke has shown animals at the fair for nine years, starting with chickens but transferring over to goats around four to five years ago. Slyke was also the only king who applied for the position, he said.
Slyke is planning on attending Bowling Green in the fall for graphic design.
“My favorite part of the fair is being around all the animals,” he said.
Maglott wanted her last Knox County Fair to be memorable, she said. And what better way than to be awarded the title of queen.
She’s shown horses for six years and rabbits for four years.
Horses in Maglott’s family span generations, with the 2022 Queen finding a love of horses with her grandparents.
“I just wanted to ride them all the time,” she said.
She was also awarded the Equine Queen last year at the fair.
Maglott takes her horses to different shows throughout the state, she said, mostly near the Columbus area.
