Singing “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias, and picking up girls with the line “If I had to choose between breathing and loving you, I would take my last breath to tell you I love you,” helped freshman Alex Barczak clinch the 2007 Mr. Quinnipiac University title.
“Originality, school spirit, effort and showing us they really want it are some of the elements the judges look for,” Senior judge Stacey Guiot said.
The seven contestants in this year’s pageant which included, seniors, Pat McGown and Steve Altmann, junior, Jason Bond and freshmen, Rob Ostermann, Tom Jackson, Alex Barczak and Mike Peay tried to prove to the judges how much they wanted the crown.
As a first time pageant contestant, senior Steve Altmann was eager to get the competition started.
“This is going to be really fun, I’m just really pumped,” Altmann said. “I think it’s great the Student Programming Board does events like this. It’s great to go the really popular ones.”
If Altmann won, he knew that the title would not change him.
“I’m going to continue being who I am. I think it’s important that people step up outside of their own organizations sometimes and show the community they are true leaders. I hope that the new Mr. Quinnipiac will step up and be a true role model for our community,” Altmann said.
The first event was casual wear. Each contestant went out to pose on stage while MC’s Sean Geary and Brianne Tansey told the audience what the ideal first date would be for each contestant.
The spirit wear portion of the competition was next, where all seven contestants had to pump up the crowd with some tricks they had up their sleeves. Water bottles and Frisbees were thrown out to the audience and “QU” chants were yelled, along with “Hail Bobcats” and “Beat Yale.”
The contestants showed their talents following the spirit wear portion. There were singers like McGown who beat-boxed to songs by Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, and Timbaland, Barczak who sang “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias, and Peay who played guitar, singing songs from Dispatch, Dave Matthews and Oasis. Ostermann and Altmann showed the judges their dancing skills to “Mr. Roboto” and “Soulja Boy,” while Bond played the piano. Jackson wanted to complete the “Saltine Challenge” where he attempted to eat six Saltine crackers in 60 seconds. Unfortunately, he could only finish five crackers.
Before the first elimination round, the seven strapping young men walked on stage with a female escort and told a pick up line in their formal wear. Some were sweet, some funny and a few inappropriate.
McGown showed his affection by telling his escort, “Baby your name must be Visa, because your body is everywhere I want to be.”
All of the contestants were asked to go on stage while the judges chose the top three. Making it through to the final round were Altmann, Barczak and Bond.
The final three were given a situation and asked how they would respond to it. The situations included seeing an ex-girlfriend at a party while they were with their new girlfriend, forgetting your one year anniversary, and what to do at the end of the night on a first date. All three responses came from the guy’s hearts and were very sincere.
After a short deliberation, the judges who included, Monique Drucker, JoLynn Hamilton, Stacey Guiot and Ross Greensein, declared a winner.
Steve Altmann was declared the first runner up and Alex Barczak was crowed the 2007 Mr. Quinnipiac.
Barczak was filled with excitement during his crowning.
“I’m just really excited that I broke the curse that nice guys always finish last,” Barczak said.
“I’m glad to represent the class of 2011 and I think all of the freshmen at Quinnipiac have a bright future.”
