On April 23, nine upperclassmen participated in Varsity Club’s fourth annual Mr. Spartan contest, a pageant for Southern Lehigh’s male juniors and seniors. The 2016 winner of the competition, senior Torin Vanin, received two free prom tickets and the crown which was passed down from Mr. Spartan’s 2015 winner: senior Jon Kanzler.

Seniors Sydney Cyr and Savannah Malesky were the hosts of this event, while high school teachers Mr. Matthew Cooper, Ms. Jessica Swartz, and Mrs. Kaytlyn Byers, judged the contestants. Varsity Club President, junior Jenna Cyr, worked behind the scenes with junior varsity club members Leah Schaffer and Olivia Muscarella, who made sure everything went smoothly.

The contestants consisted of seniors Robert Bloss and Torin Vanin and juniors Garret Cwalina, Kevin Publicover, Ben Becker, Lucas Hudson, Noah Hakim, Garrett DeMars, and Isaac Santiago.

Ms. Swartz choreographed the two dances that the contestants performed, starting off with the song, “Do It Like Me” by DLOW.

“The most difficult part was probably getting the dance down and getting everyone ready for it,” Publicover said.

After the performance, the boys quickly changed into swimwear. The hosts gave short introductions of the contestants as they strutted across the stage and posed for the judges. After the beach attire competition, the boys showed off their talents in hopes to entertain the crowd.

Quite a few musicians participated in Mr. Spartan this year: Becker and Cwalina both showed off their talent on the piano. However, the students had very different styles. While Becker played the classic “Imagine” by John Lennon, Cwalina took a more modern approach by playing “Hotline Bling.” Not to be outdone, Publicover played the classic “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on the recorder, and the crowd sang along to the well-known tune.

Vanin, DeMars, Bloss, and Hakim all utilized their voices to try to woo the crowd. Vanin rapped to Nicki Minaj’s song “Anaconda” while wearing ‘All Pink Everything’ (even a wig!). DeMars interacted with the crowd in his cover of “Bust a Move” by Young MC. Whenever he pointed the microphone at the crowd, they chanted “bust a move!” Bloss brought some country twang to the event while singing Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long.” Hakim, a German exchange student, performed Nena’s “99 Luftballons” in German.

Isaac Santiago took a very different approach to the talent portion. He went up on the stage with a backpack full of a foam sword, a Beats Pill, a canvas picture, and a mini hockey stick. Once on stage, he spun each object.

“Well a couple months ago, I learned how to spin a pencil around my finger, and then I learned how to spin different things around my thumb,” Santiago said.

Hudson showed off his basketball skills to “Black Skinhead” by Kanye West and had the ultimate finale: a promposal. He asked sophomore Mikayla Kelhart to prom and luckily, she accepted.

“Many of the students are worthy of the title of Mr Spartan but unfortunately, only one person can win,” Varsity Club Advisor, Mr. Lee Zeisloft said.

A second promposal occurred during the personality contest. Hakim’s question was “What is the most unique way to ask someone to the prom?” He then suggested that the perfect promposal required a sign and a girl to ask. Hakim asked sophomore Lauren Jani to come up to the stage while a sign was brought out. Fortunately, she said yes!

After the swimwear competition, the talent portion, a quick personality contest corresponding with the formalwear competition, and a quick dance number, six contestants were eliminated. Santiago, Publicover, and Vanin were the last three standing. The contestants all put up a fight while responding to their final questions but Vanin took the crown.

“I was really excited, mostly because I was really nervous before my performance, and I put a lot of work into my act,” Vanin said. “It felt really good to win.”