The Showalter auditorium held an almost full-capacity crowd on Feb. 5, for the annual Mr. Greek event. The loud and enthusiastic crowd cheered on the seven contestants during their formal wear, talent performance and question portion of the evening.

The event was put together by Jennae Brown from Alpha Phi sorority. In total, they raised $1,115. All the proceeds went to the Alpha Phi foundation which gives the money to support research in women’s heart health and cardiac care.
The hosts of the event were Kennedy Bailey, sophomore at EWU and president of Alpha Phi, and Conner Faulkner, former Mr. Greek 2015.

“I loved hosting this year,” said Bailey. “I did expect [it to be crowded and loud] because all the houses usually show up to support their members.”

The contestants competing were from Sigma Delta Theta, Phi Delta Theta, Beta Theta Phi, and Phi Lambda Phi.

“It starts by reaching out to each fraternity and encouraging guys to participate, then setting each contestant up with teams of two to three Alpha Phis that coach them,” Brown said.

The seven contestants included freshman Jack Harrington, sophomore Jeff Bergeron and junior Antonio Montez who are a part of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Also, junior Daniel Newman who is a part of Phi Delta Theta, freshman Viktor Dzelzs from Beta Theta Phi and sophomore Nathan Longo from Phi Lambda Phi.

The contest started out with the seven contestants modeling their formal wear while the hosts described a little bit of their background.

Three out of seven were mentioned that they were not from the local area. Dzelzs lived in Europe for 16 years and English is his second language, while Longo is from Renton, Washington, and Newman from the east coast — New Jersey.
Last in formal wear was Montez. He is in the Washington Army National Guard and is majoring in history with a minor in military science.

Harrington, Newman and Dzelzs performed a rap for their talent. Harrington wrote his own original rap song about his greek life experience. “College is alright but it’s all about the greek life,” sang Harrington. “I love college because of greek life.”

Newman rapped the B.o.B song “Headband” and to finalize it, he threw his own headband into the crowd.

Dzelz remixed the Fetty Wap song “Trap Queen” to “Frat King” where he described his experience of being in a fraternity.

Bergeron gave the crowd many laughs with his imitation of the dance from the 2004 movie “Napoleon Dynamite.”

Longo started his routine with a skit from the movie “The Notebook,” which turned into a dance to the song “Sorry” by Justin Bieber.

Montez wrapped up the talent portion of the night with vocals while playing the piano.

The final portion of the contest included two questions for each contestant to answer individually. Some of the questions included, what it would mean to win, who is the most influential person in their life, what is their idea of a perfect Cheney night and where do they see themselves in 15 years.

As the judges deliberated, Faulkner performed an acoustic version of “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber.

Jeff Bergeron of Sigma Phi Epsilon won Mr. Greek 2016, with Daniel Newman of Phi Delta Theta as first runner and Antonio Montez, also of Sigma Phi Epsilon, as second runner up.

“I’m more than happy with how it turned out this year,” said Brown. “The contestants were all great and we raised double the amount than we did last year. I couldn’t be happier.”