Mister and Miss Oneonta

Rebecca Pollard, Staff Writer

On Tuesday, October 21, the annual Mister and Miss Oneonta pageant, hosted by the Inter-Greek Council, took place in the Oneonta Hunt Ballroom from 7 to 9 p.m. The event consisted of three parts: the question portion, a talent display and lastly, a formalwear section. There were 12 total contestants in the pageant, including seven males and five females. Multiple judges, who were various faculty and staff members at SUNY Oneonta, decided on the winners of the pageant based on the three sections.

The event started with the question portion. Each contestant was asked to answer three questions on stage. During this part, they were asked to wear something that they felt represented them. Every contestant was asked to explain what they were wearing and why, in addition to why they wanted to be Mister or Miss Oneonta. The third question varied from person to person. Some were asked what they would do with one million dollars. Others were asked things like what actor or actress they would want to play themselves in a movie of their life. Although two out of three questions were the same for every person, answers were surprisingly diverse and contestants did well at not repeating each other’s answers. Some students aired on the side of humor in regards to answering the questions,. while others answered openly and honestly. All of the contestants had interesting answers and good stage presence.

Next came the talent portion of the competition. Here, the audience got to view an extremely diverse array of talents. For instance, one male contestant displayed himself completing pushups with a female sitting on his back. A female contestant showed her ability to lift 225 pounds, and another female listed the 50 states of America backwards alphabetically. The audience laughed as one male rapped to “Ice Ice Baby” and watched with interest as three males performed a step in perfect synchronization. All of the talents were entertaining, with most of the contestants leaving the audience impressed.

Lastly, the 12 contestants came out one last time to strut their stuff in their Sunday best. The formal wear section was considerably faster than the others, with each student passing quickly from their short-lived catwalk debut to an orderly line where they awaited their fate. As the judges quickly added up their overall scores, the contestants received random, un-judged questions from the audience. This resulted mainly in friends asking their friends on stage silly questions about inside jokes. When the judges’ scores came in, a male and a female runner-up were announced first. Dov Szeinuk, representing Alpha Epsilon Pi, and Tiffany Ma, representing Sigma Gamma Phi, received the runnerup awards. Eric Faimon of Chi Phi and Brianna Humphrey of Pi Delta Chi were named the new Mister and Miss Oneonta. All of the contestants did well and the entire show was a lot of fun to watch. Congratulations to all of the contestants, and happy reign to Faimon and Humphrey!