A pair of former Cass County Fair royalty received some upgrades to their titles this weekend.

Ross Beatty High School seniors Hailey Wellman and Danny Young, both of Cassopolis, were named the 2017 Cass County Fair queen and king during the ceremony, which took place Saturday evening at the fairgrounds grandstand. This year will mark the second time Wellman and Young have been on the fair court, as Wellman was crowned fair princess in 2010 while Young was named prince in 2014.

“It’s exciting to be up here [on stage] again,” Wellman said following Saturday’s ceremony.

Wellman, the daughter of Scott and Teresa Wellman, is a member of the Country Crew 4-H Club who will be showing pigs, goats and rabbits at the fair this year, she said.

On top of her commitments to her 4-H club, Wellman will also have a number of duties as the representative of this year’s fair, including handing out ribbons to winners of animal shows (when she is not showing herself), attending all grandstand events, helping judge the Nick’s Kids Show and, above all else, being a good role model for the younger 4-H’ers, she said.

“There’s a lot of responsibilities, but they are all very fun,” Wellman said.

With some experience on the fair court already under her belt, the Cassopolis senior said she is ready to take on whatever comes her way this week.

“I’m excited,” she said. “I can’t wait to spend the week with the rest of the court. We have a lot of memories to make.”

Another Cassopolis 4-H’er joins Wellman and Young on the court, as Sam Adams fifth-grader Jennifer Blair was crowned fair princess. Selected as fair prince was Ryan Briney, a seventh-grade student at Edwardsburg Middle School.

Rounding out this year’s court is Queen First Runner-Up Caitlyn Cass, of Elkhart County; King First Runner-Up Dakota Zona, of Niles; Princess First Runner-Up Zoe Weaver, of Granger; and Prince First Runner-Up Blake Hartsell, of Cassopolis.