Battle to Become the Ultimate Titan

by Blythe Butcher
4.17.07

Before this year, students were never given set
standards as to how to obtain the title of the greatest
Titan. However, in late March, Student Council produced the Ultimate Titan Challenge.

This reality television show-based competition
included 20 seniors: 10 boys and 10 girls. While the
freshman, sophomore and junior classes attended
advisory sessions to prepare for next year, the senior
class attended a special assembly where the Ultimate
Titan Challenge was introduced.

During the assembly, seniors had the opportunity to
nominate challenge participants. After the nominations were counted, the competitors included seniors Kaitlin Barnes, Jessica Carlson, Jessica Grothe, Katie Hubenka, Brogan Kauzlarich, Clare Koeppe, Catherine Prather, Ashley Simpson, Monet Thomas, Liz Thornburg, Eric Borst, Anthony Dunn, Will Findlay, Kyle Hubenka, Josias Hueser, Doug McAcy, Shawn Saunders, Brent Sorensen, Tyler Speck and Joey Tomasiwicz.

Of these seniors, one male and one female would be
named the Ultimate Titan.

“I thought it sounded like a good idea,” Speck said. “It showed school spirit and showed the younger students it is okay to go to school.”

The judges for the competition were channel 94.1 radio personality Montez, the Fightin’ Titan mascot, math teacher Paul Kunes and a special mystery judge, science teacher Dee Linse.

The event kicked off with the “Titan’s Next Top Model” portion of the competition. As contestants were introduced, they entered the stage portraying their view of the Ultimate Titan. This was the contestants’ first opportunity to impress the judges.

“(I wore) jeans with a polo and a blazer cause it mixed casual with professional,” Dunn said.

The contestants then competed in the “Fear Factor”
portion of the challenge. For this segment, each competitor pre-selected three different items to eat or drink. The items they were given to choose between included: half a lemon (the rind included),
SPAM, pickled pigs’ feet, coffee beans, hot sauce, baby food and saltines.

Once they finished their food, they had to drink a concoction of unknown ingredients to complete the event. The first to complete their food for the girls was Kauzlarich and for boys was Findlay.

“I didn’t get to choose because I got there late so I got pickled pigs’ feet, baby peaches and a lemon.” Dunn said, “The drink was the worst part. It was ham flavored.”

The competition continued onto the “Are you Smarter than a Freshman” section, which tested the contenders’ overall intelligence. Each student had to complete a test that covered questions pertaining to everything from math to the Black Hole.

After wearing out their brains and stomachs, the competitors then moved onto the physical portion of
the challenge: “Survivor.”

For this competition the boys went first. It started off
with them simply having to balance on one foot on a chair. The competition became more difficult as they were drenched with Super Soakers, then had to dance to the “YMCA” and “Macarena.” The last standing male contender was Sorensen.

The females then faced the same challenge. However, they had to dance to the “Chicken Dance” and “YMCA” and play Simon Says. The last standing female was Carlson.

“Simon Says (was the hardest part) because I don’t
take directions very well,” Simpson said. Throughout the competition, the audience had many opportunities to participate. While transitioning between events, the audience was invited to
partake in a dance contest.

The winners received T-shirts from Titan Town. Another way the audience was invited to participate was through a text message vote. At the end of the night, the fan favorites, as the winners of the text vote were called, were announced. They were Koeppe and Dunn.

After the audience entered their votes, the challengers were faced with their first elimination round. The top four boys and four girls were left. The final contestants then moved on to the “Titan’s Got
Talent” competition where each competitor had one last opportunity to show what made him or her the Ultimate Titan. The competitors did everything from dancing, to playing an instrument, to teaching the judges something new. They had about three weeks to prepare for the talent portion.

“In all reality, I hadn’t really prepared,” Kauzlarich
said. “I was going to have someone videotape me figure skating but it was too short of notice. I just decided that hair is something I am good at so it would be funny to shave my brother’s hair into
a mohawk.”

Thornburg and Kyle Hubenka proved through their school spirit, individuality, bravery and intelligence that they were the Ultimate Titans.

photo by Rob Nielsen