And Mr. WSC is…

Lights shine down on you.

You just won the Mr. WSC Pageant.

You are sophomore Gavin Friedrich.

When people think of a beauty pageant, they think of women candidates. But at Wayne State, there are men.

“It has been a tradition at Wayne State for a long time,” SAB Student Activity Coordinator Sarah Gunion said.

This year, there were four candidates: Friedrich, freshman Ryan Johnson, junior Marcus Knight and senior Eben Foster.

“Each contestant was presented and got to walk in with a song that they chose,” Gunion said.

The only requirement to be a Mr. WSC pageant contestant is to be nominated by a group. The groups include SciFi Club (Knight), Delta Sigma Pi (Friedrich), Zeta Tau Omega (Foster) and Active Minds (Johnson).

“It’s like the Miss USA pageant,” Gunion said. “There’s a formal wear and a theme wear, which was ‘Wreck the Warriors.’ Then they imitate a faculty member, and each candidate is given two minutes to show off their talents.

“In the end, the final three contestants will be asked a final question. Based on the answer to that question, we will crown Mr. WSC.”

The judges were Jeff Carstens, Dean of Students; Dr. Dennis Lichty, Dean of School and Education; and Nathan Schreiter, 2013’s Mr. WSC.

The host was Burpie, who had performed with Jay Dukes earlier this year.

A fun fact about the night was that Friedrich’s parents came to watch the show.

During the show, contestants and Burpie had the crowd involved with acts.

There was choreographed dancing, juggling hacky sacks and twirling around a wrecking ball.

“One of my favorite parts of the show was when the crowd played the section game,” Burpie said.

In the game, each section had to do a chant louder than the last.

“This was a very high energy, exciting, competitive fun night. It was all around fun from beginning to end,” Burpie said.