Snatching the crown

By Lacy Sutton / Staff Writer

Hear ye, hear ye. The Blue Dragon family has officially crowned new royalty.

Hutchinson Community College started off Homecoming week with 15 candidate couples, representing various clubs and organizations.

Students were able to vote for their top choices. Seven couples were announced as finalists during the afternoon pep assembly on Oct. 16.

The seven finalists included The Collegian’s Tabitha Barr and Jake Brown, both sophomores, who represented Student Publications.

Brown is a Hutchinson native on the HutchCC baseball team. When Brown was asked to serve as a candidate, he was ecstatic. Being an athlete, the achievement was going to have some scheduling conflicts.

“I didn’t want to get in trouble with baseball, so I asked my coaches and as soon as they said it would be all right I was like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s do this,’” Brown said.

Before Wednesday’s assembly, Brown didn’t think the duo would make it to the finals. Student Publications has rarely made it past the preliminary round.

As their names were called to be finalists, he knew they had the crowns in the bag.

“I just convinced everyone I knew,” Brown said. “I play baseball so I convinced my teammates, and I’m from Hutch, so a lot of people already knew me.”

Barr is a Nickerson native and is The Collegian’s Editor in Chief. For many girls, it’s a dream to win homecoming queen, but for Barr, that’s just not the case.

“It’s insane to me. I still don’t understand how it happened,” she said. “I’m honored, but seriously, how?”

She was a bundle of nerves throughout the entire process. As someone who isn’t fond of being in the spotlight, this was way out of her comfort zone.

“I knew there was a greater chance of being a finalist since they were picking seven couples,” Barr said. “But it was still crazy to me that we got in. Jake was the driving force in getting us there. But even still, I felt so much panic in that moment.”

There was a mix of emotions between the pair as Brown and Barr were announced as royalty during halftime of the football game.

“Yeah, that was pretty cool,” Brown said. “I was kind of laughing at Tabby cause she didn’t really seem too thrilled.”

“It didn’t feel real,” Barr said. “I think in that moment, I blanked out. I was honored and I’m not gonna lie, I, for real, love the tiara and bouquet of roses.”

“I don’t understand why, but I’m glad a media nerd can win homecoming queen!”

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