UPDATE: Samantha Krikorian and Coleton Hutchins, ’08 alumni, returned to crown the homecoming court at halftime of the varsity football game, Oct. 3. The student body voted Janae Ford as queen and Natalie McCallum as princess of the senior class, as well as junior Tatiana Fontes, sophomore Ashlyn White and freshman Brooke Stobbe as princesses of the other classes.

“I would love to come back for homecoming next year and crown the queen if Janae can’t make it,” McCallum said. “I love Fresno Christian and I’ve been a part of homecoming all of my high school years so it would be a great experience.”

After the mud-wrestling chaos of the Sept. 30 princess pageant, the senior queen nominees put their own spin on vying for the homecoming crown.

During the queen pageant on Oct. 2, a “queen bash” video showed the nominees answering questions like: “If the other queen nominees were animals, what kind would they be?”

“I like the video because it’s funny,” Danny Ibarra, ’11, said. “I don’t really know them so I get to see what they’re like [before voting].”

Although they trashed each other onscreen, nominee Janae Ford enjoyed the camaradarie between the girls, saying the video introduced the candidates to the audience through their staged biting comments.

“I thought the video was hilarious,” Ford said. “I liked how we can joke about things, and laugh about it later. It was cool to see another side of Megan Ortiz [because she’s shy].”

After showing the presentation, emcees Tatiana Fontes, ’10, and Kelsey Hart, ’11 led a quiz show, interrogating the candidates about their respective king nominees.

“It was very fun because they got nervous and didn’t know what to say,” Hart said. “They were on the spotlight so they had to think fast.”

The last part of the competition called for bobbing for “queen” playing cards in a vat of warm, sticky oatmeal. The candidates were then required to gobble two hot dog buns filled with cold refried beans and chug a glass of milk.

After Ortiz won the eating contest, the girls lashed out by flinging oatmeal at each other, slipping and sliding across the slimy tarp.

“The best part was getting messy,” Ford said. “You don’t usually get to roll around in oatmeal on a regular basis.”

Despite the tiffs that broke out onstage, the nominees appreciated their opponents’ dedication to winning.

“Natalie [McCallum] was really good; competitive in a good way,” nominee Ani Paparigian said. “She was really good at kicking Brittany’s (Stobbe) butt on the stage.”

In addition to the fun of rolling around in breakfast food, the girls appreciate the opportunity to become a part of homecoming history.

“It’s an honor to be chosen, and it’s fun to do all those silly things I saw when I was an underclassman,” Paparigian said. “It was fun that I got to do them.”

For more information on homecoming, read the Sept. 30 article, Princess pageant heralds regal rivalry or the Oct. 3 article, Dance crowns homecoming king, or check out Queen pigs, Queen face wash, How well do you know your king? or Princess blender.