Boys gone wild

cheering students.

Zach Ames, a sophomore majoring in business administration from Taylorsville, was all smiles while he was being adorned with a Burger King crown, a bouquet of red carnations and a sterling silver Mr. USU ring from S.E. Needham Jewelers.

“It’s surreal, I just did it for fun,” Ames said after winning the title of Mr. USU.

Staci Meacham, a junior majoring in speech communications, and John Reynolds, a senior majoring in business information systems, were this year’s Mr. USU co-chairs.

Together, they organized a committee to help plan and organize the event.

For about six weeks, the committee was hard at work getting everything in order for the pageant.

The theme “From Boys II Men” was picked and potential contestants were nominated and then voted on by committee members. Qualifications to become a contestant weren’t just based on looks – personality was a must, too.

“The committee thought of some of the funniest people we knew on campus,” Meacham said.

“This is at least the fifth or sixth Mr. USU pageant the school has had,” Maren Barnett, ASUSU traditions chair and management and human resources senior, said.

She said the pageant is growing in popularity; it used to be held in the TSC Ballroom, but was so well attended it was moved to the Kent Concert Hall to accommodate the number of students.

Miken Davis, a senior majoring in agricultural business, wasn’t able to get in when it was held in the TSC Ballroom because it was full, so this year she came an hour early to make sure she could get a seat.

“I know lots of the guys competing and it sounded like a good night of entertainment,” Davis said.

Olivia Lyman, a senior majoring in management and human resources, was on the pageant committee.

She explained that the contestants would be judged in several different categories, including swimsuit, talent, formal wear and question and answer.

The panel of five judges included Quinn Millett, USU’s student body president; Joe Needham, the executive vice president of S.E. Needham Jewelers and Joyce Kinkead, vice president for undergraduate studies and research.

The eight contestants this year were Panu Puikkonen, Zach Ames, Noah Watkins, Mitch Vaterlaus, Jon Potter, Brad Stringham, Lee Wilson and Greg Ipson. Hosts of this year’s pageant were Pat Moody and Chelsea Stephens.

At the beginning of the pageant, the audience watched short video clips of each contestant which introduced who they were and explained why they would make a good Mr. USU.

The contestants were responsible for coming up with their own clip, so each one was very different from the others.

After the introductions, the contestants got together and performed a dance to a Boys II Men song.

Next came the swimsuit portion of the evening. Each contestant designed their own bathing suit based on a futuristic theme. Mitch Vaterlaus, a junior majoring in psychology, won the swimsuit event. He capitalized on recycled goods and sported a swimsuit made out of newspaper.

He also added a few accessories: a hat made from a milk jug, a newspaper beach ball and a “man purse” made out of newspaper as well.

“It probably took me two or three hours to make,” Vaterlaus said.

Vaterlaus said he gained 10 pounds preparing for the swimsuit event by working out and doing push ups.

“He gained 10 pounds, but he still only weighs a buck forty,” Emily Vaterlaus, Mitch Vaterlaus’s sister who drove up from BYU to support her brother in the pageant, said. “I came to see my brother make a fool of himself.”

Next was the talent portion of the competition, and judging by the noise coming from the audience, it was by far the favorite event.

Ames got the audience cheering with an original dance number that involved two life-size dummies connected to him by poles and held together with duct tape, Stringham serenaded the ladies of USU with a love song on the ukulele and Wilson, along with partner Emilie Potter, dressed as cheerleaders and re-enacted a Will Ferrell Saturday Night Live skit.

Wilson, a senior majoring in public relations and marketing, said he has probably been told he looks like Ferrell more than 25 times since the beginning of the semester.

The final portion of the evening was the formal wear/question-and-answer event. Contestants were escorted on stage, modeled their formal wear and were asked a question from one of the judges. Questions ranged from the serious to the not-so serious. Greg Ipson’s quick response to his question of “Which house from the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’ would you be and why?” got a lot of laughs when he came up with:

“The brick one describes my life. The way that it’s solid and it’s hard – you can’t blow it down and it looks better than the rest,” Ipson said

During the judges’ tallying of scores, the audience watched a film similar to Jay Leno’s jaywalking where hosts Moody and Stephens quizzed students on USU trivia.

Then the results were announced. Lee Wilson was awarded First Attendant and was winner of the formal wear competition.

He and his escort wore the famous orange and light blue tuxedos from the movie “Dumb and Dumber.” I knew it was going to be neck and neck, but Zach’s talent was untouchable,” Wilson said after the pageant was over.

Brad Stringham, a sophomore majoring in civil engineering, said he likes acting crazy and would consider competing in the Mr. USU pageant again.

“I feel like I left it all on the floor. I did my best to please the women of Utah State,” Stringham said.

Ames, winner of the Mr. USU title, also took the talent award and was voted Mr. Congeniality by the other contestants.

According to Ames, the best part about being Mr. USU will be the attention from the ladies and the hope that he will get some dates because of his new title.

Lori Bonham, a senior in public relations, she said she came to the pageant to watch all the hot boys.

“I’m not surprised Zach won – that talent was amazing. I just sat there and thought ‘how did he do that?” Bonham said.

Meacham said there were about 1,200 people in attendance at the pageant this year.

“I had very high expectations coming into this and it exceeded them – that is probably the biggest complement I could give the contestants,” Meacham said.

nnaylor@cc.usu.edu