After winning Miss Tennessee USA Cole competed for and won the title of Miss USA 2000 , becoming the second Hispanic woman to win Miss USA after Laura Harring in 1985 . Cole went on to compete at the Miss Universe pageant , held in Nicosia , Cyprus later that year . Her performance was enough to secure her a spot among the five finalists , and brought the U.S. back into the semifinals ( after Kimberly Pressler had failed to advance the year before , breaking a streak of consecutive placements that had been going since 1977 ) . She also placed fifth overall . She became the first woman to place in the top five at all three pageants and her record was not surpassed until 2006 by Tara Conner . This was the first time in the Miss Universe pageant history that two women of Puerto Rican heritage ( Cole and Puerto Rico 's Zoribel Fonalledas ) participated at the same time representing different countries
Miss USA 2000
Miss USA 2000
Lynnette Cole