Cerritos College students competed for the right to call themselves Mr. Cerritos.

The event was held on Thursday, Mar. 10 and is run like a Miss America pageant for male students.

The Mr. Cerritos competition, much like the Miss America pageant, had the contestants answer a question, and had a talent and swimsuit portion in which the seven male competitors had to face each other.

All competitors except one were sponsored by different clubs, Trent Coates, chief justice, Diego Lucas, associate justice, Isaac Simons-Araya, theater major, Steven Pollacios, English major, Lionel Penton, business major, Joshua Neveda, independent runner, and Arthur Haney, actor.

There were about 50 people in attendance that had influence in helping the judges decide the winner.

While most lip synced for their talent, Coates and Lucas each showed off different skills.

Lucas played the saxophone, while two students danced in the background.

Coates however, read a poem that he planned out and then showed off his dance skills.

“I was kind of nervous, I didn’t want to dance, I was just gonna do the poem, I was just like I am a different kind of person, and I just didn’t wanna give them one thing,” Coates said.

Both Simons-Araya and Haney were two other crowd favorites with Simons-Araya becoming popular from the swimsuit portion and Haney showing off charisma throughout the event.

The contest seemed close from the crowd reaction, but in the end, Coates came out on top and became Mr. Cerritos, while Lucas ended up in second place.

ASCC President Eduardo De La Rosa served as a judge and had the audience’s help in deciding who he felt should win.

“The crowd had influence in my decision […], I liked Trent because he was confident, Diego stood out too,” he said.

Coates thanked everyone for going to the event and had nice things to say about the others in the competition.

“They’re great students, […], they made it fun, it wasn’t about who won, who lost, we all went out there and enjoyed ourselves,” he said.

The Mr. Cerritos contest concluded a club spirited week, which included the Falcon Games the previous three days.

Coates stated,”I was rooting for all them backstage (the other contestants), it was just a great vibe, and I’m happy that I got to participate in it.”