Eight weeks ago, Annabeth Colbert was in the hospital with a broken right femur and left foot, injuries suffered when she was pinned between two cars during a wreck.

On Saturday night, Miss Troy Annabeth Colbert, a Troy University sophomore, was crowned “Miss Peanut” at the annual National Peanut Festival Pageant in Dothan.

“It was a miracle for sure that I was able to compete,” Colbert said. “I was so surprised to win. I was in total shock. I’m still in shock.”

The National Peanut Pageant was only Colbert’s fourth competition. She had never won a pageant until Miss Troy and then she won Miss National Peanut Festival.

“Over the summer I had prepared myself for Miss Peanut. I knew I was prepared,” Colbert said. “But, in other pageants I’d been very nervous. I had been praying to be calm and not to be nervous. The Lord gave me that, to be calm.”

In winning the title of Miss National Peanut, Colbert also won the Brittany Shepard Pugh Memorial Award, Spirit of Wiregrass, Verbal Communication and Interview categories. She also placed in the top five in the peanut knowledge category.

Colbert, a Dothan native, said the verbal communication was her favorite pageant competition.

“You had to draw a word out of bowl and then speak on that word for 60 seconds,” Colbert said. “Everyone kept getting these hard word and I just pulled out the perfect word for me – adoption.”

Colbert has a three-year-old adopted sister from China.

“That was very neat that I was able to talk about that,” she said.

Colbert is looking forward to representing Troy in upcoming Peanut Festival events and activities. She will preside over the Peanut Festival Fair in Dothan and in 20 other events in the next month.

Colbert said that she is a “really morally convicted person.”

“I try to be a woman of integrity and know the difference between right and wrong and always try to do the right thing,” she said.

“As Miss Peanut, I’ll be an ambassador for farming and the community. I just hope that I remain grounded and that I can inspire as many people as God allows. I hope that whoever comes in contact with me sees God in me because I think that is the most important thing I can do.”

Miss Goshen Lauren Crosby placed in the top 10 in the Miss National Peanut Festival pageant and was in the top five in the peanut knowledge competition.

Crosby said that she was so excited hear her named called as a top 10 finalist that she cried.

“I couldn’t help it,” she said. “I was so surprised and it was such an honor. It was such an amazing thing.”

Crosby said she thought it was her uniqueness that placed her in the judges’ mind.

“I have really short hair and that is uncommon in pageants and I think it did make me stick out. Miss Peanut was wonderful and I would do it all over again.”

Erikka Knight, Miss Troy Pageant director, said that 2013 is the first time that Troy has had a winner in the Miss National Peanut Pageant since 1978

“This is a huge accomplishment,” Knight said. “It is shining a bright light on our great city,” she said.

Knight also expressed congratulations to Miss Goshen Lauren Crosby and to the town of Goshen. “They both make us all proud.”