LINCOLN, Ne. -- Nebraska's Audrey Eckert earned the title of Miss USA on October 24.

It is a recognition her father's excitement gave him attention as well from the audience. Mike Eckert and his wife were in attendance at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev. October 24 to witness Miss USA's decision on their daughter Audrey.

"They make it such an intense moment. You're waiting, and I've been in the situation where, she's won and where she's up there with the last, second to last two of them, and didn't win. But, yeah, actually when they announced her name I had an aisle seat, and I just went out into the aisle and started jumping up, crazy. Unbeknownst to me, the production people for the Pageant had scanned over and saw me. The video of it has been out on TikTok and I never thought it would go viral but apparently its going viral in my very animated reaction," Eckert said.

He estimates close to 20 people from Nebraska attended the Miss USA Pageant in Nevada. He said he her mother sought pageants that developed life skills.

"We were always very selective on the systems that we wanted her to participate in, and focused on those that had the public speaking component, and an interview component, because we really wanted her to hone those skills that are needed in life. And I think that's what has really helped her out is that, you know, she's a great speaker and she always does great on the interview component, which in this pageant was one-third of their entire score," he said.

Her pageant history dates back to when she was in elementary school.

"We got a random invitation to one when she was nine years old. And, so she did it and we didn't know how to prepare her for it and, put her up there and she ended up in the top five of 76 nine-year-old girls," Eckert said.

Since then, they learned the importance of pageant coaches. She won the Miss Teen Nebraska in 2020, and got third runner-up at Nationals. The Miss Universe Pageant will be in Bangkok, Thailand.

Eckert is the second Nebraska contestant to win the Miss USA title. Sarah Rose Summers won the title in 2018.

Mike Eckert grew up in the Scottsbluff area and had family in the Dalton and Sidney area.