Here are Tuesday night's preliminary winners of Miss SC, Miss SC Teen pageants

Tuesday night was the first evening of preliminaries for the Miss SC Pageant at Township Auditorium in Columbia.

Contestants were divided into groups and, over the course of the next three days, will compete in the talent, swimsuit/evening wear, or on-stage question categories. Winners in each category are announced each evening, and those women will make up the pool of finalists for Saturday night’s event.

Most talents were listed as “vocal ” or “dance,” with a couple of obligatory piano performances in the mix. However one or two ladies stood out: Miss Loris Bog-Off Festival promises an aerial performance on Thursday, and Miss Dorchester will take the stage to show off her speed-painting technique Wednesday evening.

Tuesday evening's performances started with a small hiccup. Mics and spotlights were off during the Miss SC Teen introductions, and the music seemed to drown out a few voices.

The crew settled in for the Miss SC contestants.

All contestants were dressed in the same version of the sparkly little black dress, a theme that carried over into the interview portion of the evening when the pool of contestants wore black-and-white outfits of their choosing.

Miss SC 2017 Suzie Roberts led the 2018 contestants in a dance routine featuring a medley of Lady Gaga’s "Born this Way," Madonna’s "Respect Yourself" and "Pose."

Although the judges will choose the finalists for the weekend’s competition, people watching or streaming the pageant can vote for a People’s Choice contestant to be included in the Final 16 on Saturday. Details can be found at Miss-SC.org.

This is the last year of swimsuit competition, and the ladies walked in neon yellow and orange bikinis. The newer fitness component featured the ladies performing a set fitness routine of jumps, squats, pushups and poses.

The winners of the Tuesday preliminary competition are:

Talent: Miss SC Spartanburg Davia Bunch, who danced en pointe to “I’m Feeling It Still,” by Portugal,and Miss SC Teen River City Berkley Bryant, who tap danced to Bruno Mars.

Evening wear: Miss SC Clemson Sydney Sill, who wore a hot pink, strapless column dress with a front slit; and Miss SC Teen Clemson Halie Duncan in a billowy yellow ball gown.

The preliminaries continue through Thursday.

This story was originally published June 26, 2018 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Here are Tuesday night's preliminary winners of Miss SC, Miss SC Teen pageants."