Eighth grader takes Mr. Medford title

Guys at Medford School showed off their talents, looks and speaking skills during the annual Mr. Medford Pageant last Tuesday, May 26 in honor of Student Appreciation Day. 
This year marked the third year of the competition and it is organized by the student council. 
Senior Lucas Cronin, one of the main organizers of the event, says the winner of the competition “earns major bragging rights.” 
Any boy in grades seven through 12 is eligible to participate. The nine participants included: Miguel Ruiz, Lucas Cronin, Quinn O’Connor, Ben Sutcliffe, TJ Knutson, Josh Schauer, Brandon Sisler and Colton Havelka. 
The judges for the event were teachers Rich Powers, as Sgt. Harry Buttkick, Kim Goblirsch as Gladice Prune Juice and Rebecca Mohr as Tiffany Love Pink. The contestants were judged in the categories of talent, spirit and formal wear, lip sync battle and questions. 
Ruiz kicked off the talent round with his “macho man dance”. Cronin cleverly popped balloons in his balloon bonanza, O’Connor did magic tricks, Sutcliffe did a ballet routine, Knutson did magic tricks, Schauer played the triangle with his band “The Mighty Oaks”, Sisler performed stand up comedy and Havelka did a glow in the dark dance with glow sticks. 
After round one, the judges eliminated Knutson and Schauer. Round two then pursued with the guys showing off both their formal and spirit wear. Judges decided to eliminate both Ruiz and Sutcliffe from the competition. 
Round three then kicked off and the contestants showed off their lip syncing abilities. O’Connor performed the song “Cups” form the movie “Pitch Perfect”, Havelka performed “Problem” by Arianna Grande, Sisler performed “Everything is Awesome” from “The LEGO Movie” and Cronin impressed the ladies in the audience by performing “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran. 
After round three, Cronin was eliminated with O’Connor, Sisler and Havelka moving on to the fourth and final round. Each contestant was answered a series of three questions ranging from what was your favorite video game growing up? How do you promote excellence at Medford High School? What is one thing you need to know about your future wife before you propose? And what decade do you wish you grew up in? 
After the final round instead of the judges getting the final say in who takes the Mr. Medford title, the audience determined who won based on how loud they cheered for each contestant. It was deemed that Sisler would win the title, Havelka took second and O’Connor took third. 
Eighth grader Brandon Sisler participated in the event for the first time this year. 
“There was a sign on the door so I just signed up,” he said. “I liked all of it, I thought it went pretty good and was fun.” 
In order to prepare for the event, Sisler borrowed a bow tie from a friend and chose a song for the lip sync battle. 
Sisler’s favorite category was the talent portion because he got to make jokes and his least favorite category was formal and spirit wear as he would’ve liked to be more dressed up. 
The most challenging category for him was the lip-syncing battle because he had to not only lip sync but find multiple dance moves. 
Sisler is excited to hold the Mr. Medford title and says it means that he is now “a figure of the school” and plans to judge for next year’s event. 
Runner up freshman Colton Havelka participated in the event last year and decided to give it another try this year. 
“I thought I could win it and everybody kept telling me to do it,” he said. 
Havelka waited until the day before the pageant to do any preparatory work. His favorite category was the talent portion because he not only got to dance with glow sticks, but also because the crowd was cheering him on. His least favorite category was the questions because he says he “is not the best at answering questions.” 
Havelka was shocked that he got second place, but happy with the results. He said the judges made good decisions and he plans to do the competition again next year.