Melissa Katherine Rycroft-Strickland (born March 11, 1983), from Dallas, Texas, is a reality television contestant and former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. She was a drill team officer at Newman Smith High School in Carrollton, Texas where she graduated in 2001. She participated as a contestant on the thirteenth season of ABC’s The Bachelor, on the CMT reality TV series Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team and on the eighth and fifteenth seasons of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Rycroft was named to People magazine’s list of World’s Most Beautiful People 2009 and was also named as #99 on Maxim’s list of “Hot 100 of 2009”.