BY LINDSAY CARR
Drama, suspense, and good looking talented men. This year’s Mr. WHS pageant had it all.
Eighteen male students gave it their all to impress the judges in the PAC on Thursday Feb. 2.
Featured freshmen were Malik Wellis, Brendan Gordon, Nick Claxton, Cole McComas and Logan Egelston. The sophomores were represented by Vinnie Lobello, Sam Hanna, and Gabe Currens. The juniors included Degan Sloan, Joel Witcherman, and Tyler Randolph. The majority of the contestants consisted of seven senior boys: Jared Bardar, Blake Hallas, Kyle Zufra, Dom Boni, Zach Wojno, Ryan Presson, and Brandon Randolph.
Senior, Andrew McNutt, and junior, Michael Juscak, hosted the event and kept the audience intrigued.
“After being in the pageant sophomore year, I knew I wanted to run the pageant my senior year and there I was. Michael and I had a blast up on stage doing anything and everything to get the audience laughing and the contestants comfortable on stage so they could put on a good show,” says Andrew McNutt, 12.
The judges, Mr. Singleton, Mrs. MacDowell and Mr. Heffinger or “Chester,” also contributed to the humor. “Chester” was portrayed as a middle aged man who had a fetish with his cats and treated them as if they were children.
The first round was “dress to impress” and allowed the participants to introduce themselves and give the audience a splash of their style.
Dom Boni, 12, introduced himself with a sign that read, “clap because I’m ugly,” and received many claps from the audience.
Sam Hanna, 10, wowed the audience with a red shirt with sequins that were sewn on himself.
The second round gave the contestants an opportunity to display their rockin’ bods in swimwear.
Crowd favorites included Blake Hallas, 12, saving a girl from drowning in his life guard uniform, and Jared Bardar,12, debut as a mermaid on a skateboard.
This round was followed by the talent portion, giving the contestants a chance to show the audience and judges just how creative they are.
Kyle Zufra, 12, was favored as he rocked a purple cheer uniform and danced to a remix of popular songs.
“Kyle’s dance to the ‘petty song’ was definitely the highlight of the show,” said Peyton Banks, 11.
Brandon Randolph, 12, or “Mario” wowed the audience reenactment of the video game Super Mario, which included moving props and perfectly timed jumps to the sound track.
During the intermission to the final round, Blake Hallas had the opportunity to show off his talent after being eliminated after the swimsuit portion. He portrayed himself as a famous painter, Bob Ross, and painted a portrait on stage with a fake finger. It kept the laughs going even during intermission.
The final round gave the contestants one last chance to fight for the crown with the question portion. Soon after the crown was presented Jared Bardar, 12, who became Mr.WHS of 2017.
Bardar impressed the judges in each portion, including an Elvis outfit, a performance as a mermaid, and witty answers. His talent portion included “beet boxing” in which he dressed up as Rocky and literally beat up beets with his boxing gloves.
The evening ended with raffling off dates to each contestant, which produced even more laughs for the audience.
“It was a fun night, full of laughter, giggles, and good times,” concluded McNutt.
