TOWAMENCIN- On the evening of Wednesday, February 13th, twelve of North Penn’s best and boldest boys including juniors Joe Grundy, Dylan McMahon, and Nick Tornetta; and seniors Mike Berstecher, Linus Cerbe, Chris Hanson, Mitch Nickerson, Spencer Seipt, Kevin Shin, Kavit Solanki, Sean Tran, and Tim Weisbein competed in the always-cutthroat Mr. North Penn pageant. After six segments of fierce  Saturday-Night-Live-quality competition, senior Spencer Seipt earned the prestigious title of 4th annual Mr. North Penn.

 Hosted by the Honor Society, this year’s competition featured a James Bond theme and coined by the slogan, “The name’s North Penn, Mr. North Penn. All proceeds from refreshment, raffle, and ticket sales will be split between the American Red Cross for Sandy Relief Fund and NHS senior scholarships.

 The show, which was originally scheduled for last Friday, was postponed due to the inclement forecast. According to NHS president Sydnee Jacques, however, the rescheduled show went on smoothly.

“We’ve pretty much been planning this show since November,” said Jacques. “With the auditions and getting the scripts together, it was a lot of hard work but it all came together, and I think it went awesome. Compared to some of the rehearsals, this was the best so I’m really happy with how everything turned out. We were kind of nervous because there was another snow storm tonight.”

Jacques, along with other NHS cabinet members Chloe Johnson and Matt Zarenkiewicz were the MC’s for the night. After the infamous opening dance where the contestants show off in their yoga pants, the night kicked off with the pick-up line segment. Solanki spoke in African click language while wrapped up in his native Kenyan flag and Cerbe, an exchange simply said in his accent, “I’m German.”

Next up, the contestants impressed the audience with their beach bods while sporting their best swim suits. Seipt swam around the stage dressed as Ariel while singing the Little Mermaid song, and McMahon washed his little cousin’s stylish barbie jeep in his designer speedo trunks.

The last item on the agenda before intermission, the talent show, was the pinnacle of Mr. North Penn and featured talents varying all over the map.  Nickerson somehow managed to shrink to about two feet tall (you’ll have to see the pictures to really understand!) and entertained the crowd with his mini-moves to a mashup of current songs, and Berstecher danced in the dark with his crew of glow stick covered men. Solanki showed off his prima-ballerina skills in a fantastic tutu and leotard combination. Paired with his guest star principal Burton T. Hynes, the duo demonstrated one of the most memorable renditions of “jump on it” in North Penn history.

 “It took some convincing to get Mr. Hynes,” explained Solanki “but I wheedled him into it and it turned out perfect. We rehearsed it the day of the show right after school, so I was very impressed with his performance.”

At intermission, audience members voted for their favorite contestant by placing a paperclip in their designated bin. The audience opinion counted for 1/2 of the vote. Afterwards, teachers Mr. Brian Christopher and Mr. Kevin Manero were pied in the face and the show carried on with the formal wear and Q&A’s.

At this time, the contestants were paired with their beautiful escorts including McMahon and Manti Te’o’s girlfriend, Solanki and Chris Young’s dogs Beau and Bernie,Seipt and his adorable newborn neice, and Weisbein and his grandmother.

After thorough deliberation, the judges, including the Knight Crier contest winner Mary Nguyen and Jake Mealey, named McMahon 2nd runner up, and Solanki first runner up. After being shown on screen rollerblading around Penn State throughout the night, last year’s Mr. North Penn Brian Zolot arrived (on skates, of course) to bequeath his first place crown to Spencer Seipt.

“It feels incredible,” said Seipt. “This is probably one of the greatest nights of my life. My favorite part was just being on stage with everyone, and I just loved being with all the other guys on stage and during rehearsals these past few weeks.”

When asked what his favorite part of the night was, he pointed to his girlfriend junior Alyse Thamm and said, “kissing her in the middle of my performance.”

In terms of celebration plans, Seipt said he will be going on the ski and board club trip to Sugarloaf, Maine tomorrow. Regardless of the inclement weather, the Mr. North Penn competition was, as always, a great success.

Mr. NP will air tonight (Friday, February 15) at 7:30 p.m. Saturda, 2/16 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday 2/18 at 12:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m and Monday 2/20 at 9:00 p.m.  Additional airdates and times will be posted on the NPTV website at www.northpennnews.org under program schedule. For video coverage of the event, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfbRvtVNhds