RENO, Nev. (AP) - Cheslie Kryst of North Carolina has been crowned Miss USA 2019.

Alejandra Gonzalez of New Mexico was the first-runner up, and Oklahoma's Triana Browne the second-runner up during the competition Thursday night in Reno, Nevada.

Kryst earned a law degree and an MBA at Wake Forest University before becoming a civil litigation attorney who does pro bono work to reduce sentences for inmates. The 27-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, said during the final round that she was glad to be competing in Nevada because it's the first and only state in the nation with female majorities in both houses of the state legislature.