Where can you go to find more beef than your local butcher shop?
Those in attendance at Saturday night’s 20th Annual Mr. Greek God competition had to look no further than BU’s own West Gym to find an answer.
This year’s competition, sponsored by Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority, featured four contestants and about 800 spectators, a drop-off from last year’s seven participants.
The proceeds from Mr. GreeK God will benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
“It’s a really good way to get our name out there as a sorority that does, like, really great philanthropy,” said AEPhi’s April Ramirez, one of two event chairs.
Greek God hopefuls Jedd Chesterson from Alpha Kappa Psi, Roger Benson of Pi Lambda Phi and Bobby Foster from Alpha Phi Delta greased up and posed down to show off months of work on their chiseled bodies, but it was Chi Phi’s Howard Wright who took home this year’s title.
The contest included four categories: a toga competition in which each fraternity performed a mini skit, a “posedown” competition, a formal wear competition and a question and answer segment.
There was also an approximately 20-minute portion of the show in which emcees Lisa Friedman and Nick Rinaldi poked fun at every organization in the house, calling them, among other things, losers, midgets, canines and farm animals. They also alluded to the fact that the winning fraternity, Chi Phi, was less than godly in bed.
But according to one of the judges, it was the contestants’ physique that would ultimately overshadow the other categories.
When asked about the most weighty categories, April Ramirez, one of the event’s coordinators from AEPhi, said that the value of the “posedown” portion of the contest had been deflated this year to avoid situations of unhealthy training or steroid use, which has been rumored to occur in past years.
“Each section is worth a different amount of points and this year I purposely, to make sure that people didn’t follow that stereotype, I made sure that the amount of points for the pose down section was less than any other year,” Ramirez said.
But Kristi Putrino, one of two judges from American Family Fitness, said that for her, choosing Wright, the biggest participant in the competition at 5’11’’ and 205 lbs , was a no-brainer.
“For me it was a landslide,” she said.
Wright commented that although he has heard of past participates using steroids to beef up for the competition, he doesn’t think that members of Chi Phi have used unhealthy training methods in recent years.
“People in the contest may use it but this is the kind of contest where the biggest guy doesn’t win anyway. I mean, granted this year the biggest guy won. It’s more about the skits, it’s more about preparation, it’s more about organization, and I think that’s what we had, we had the total package.”
Putrino said that choosing between second and third place was the tougher decision, but ultimately, Jedd Chesterson was chosen as first runner up.
The creative portion of the evening was the skits designed by the frats to introduce their candidates. But in three out of four skits, audience members may have been too focused on the scantily clad dancers who surrounded their prospective Greek God’s to pay attention to the actual contestants.
Phi Kappa Psi’s skit from “Robinhood, Men In Tights,” which included members of the fraternity sporting green tights and reenacting a scene from the movie, showcased the personality of the fraternity, who used their own members as the main attraction.
Ramirez cited the staggering participation in recent years as a result of the competition’s rising cost and the time commitment.
“It costs a lot of money and a lot of time. These boys are putting their lives into this,” she said.
Howard Wright admitted that the competition cost his fraternity about $1,000, but he said that he is disappointed at this year’s low turnout anyway.
“It seems like greek life is getting kinda lazy,” Wright said.
Although Ramirez said that greek life is trying to reach out to the community through this event, the overwhelming majority of the audience members were in fraternities and sororities. This was made particularly clear by the seating arrangements.
When a certain two reporters attempted to sit in a half-empty row, they were told by members of Phi Sigma Sigma that they would have to leave because it was reserved for their sorority.
However, Ramirez hopes for a bigger turnout next year.
“We spoke to the boys and the IFC and we asked how many people were going to do it next year and a larger number than this year said that they were interested in participating, so we’re not worried about it.”
This year’s Mr. Greek God, Howard Wright, was both proud of his victory and excited to experience what he had been missing since he started training in May.
“I ate a burger, I ate a cupcake, I had a shot, so I’m good.”