Homecoming is an annual week long tradition here at Millikin University that has been going on for the past 100 years. There are a variety of different events going on and part of the celebration is that every year, several male and female students are nominated by various organizations across campus for the position of homecoming king and homecoming queen. There is an election held by the student body to elect the King and Queen. This year there were 5 different king candidates and 5 different queen candidates, and while all the candidates were great, sadly there could be only one winner from each category. The winners this year were Kort Branscome and Emily Crutchfield (Pictured).

This year the king candidates were Kort Branscome representing Tau Kappa Epsilon, Pedro Fernandez representing the Latino American Student Association, Jared Rixstine representing the student senate, Eric Shafer representing WJMU, and Mitch Wilfer representing the University Program Board. The queen candidates were Angela Benford representing the Multicultural Student Council, Emily Crutchfield representing Pi Beta Phi, Hannah Davis-Shatinsky representing Delta Delta Delta, Amanda Lee representing DECA, and Alyssa Visvardis representing Sigma Delta Phi.

The king and queen were crowned shortly before the homecoming football game in a short ceremony held at the Frank M. Lindsay football stadium. Before the ceremony, all the candidates were asked how it felt to be nominated. Kort Branscome said “It feels great be out there and represent Millikin University and felt great to be nominated by my fraternity brothers in an organization like TKE and it felt great to represent my organization and its members.”

Eric Shafer stated that he felt “humbled as well as honored to represent not just my peers at WJMU, but it also feels great to represent Millikin University as a whole and represent all the students here.”

Pedro Fernandez was quoted as saying “It feels unbelievable to be doing something like this. It is my first time representing an organization at a level such as this, it’s something that I never saw myself doing but now here I am.”

Jared Rixstine stated,“I am very excited and honored to represent my peers as well as the student senate. It is a lot different from last year just looking at this as a junior and now that I am a senior I’m participating in this event.”

Mitch Wilfer said, “This is something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I was a freshman, and it felt great to finally be able to participate and represent my organization and call Millikin my home. I had fun this past week.”

Also, from the queen candidates, Hannah Davis-Shatinsky said, “It was awesome, it is something that I never thought would happen, it felt great to represent Tri Delta as well as the theater department.” Alyssa Visvardis stated, “It was pretty cool to be nominated for something like this, it was a great experience to represent my peers and actually it was my roommate who was the one who nominated me.” Emily Crutchfield was quoted as saying, “I am very excited and honored to represent Pi Beta Phi at an event such as this. It is Millikin’s 100^th homecoming and I am excited to be one of the candidates in this celebration.”

Amanda Lee was quoted as saying that “It feels awesome to be one of the candidates and it also feels great to represent my organization here on campus in this event.”

Angela Benford said that “This was an honor to be nominated and to represent my group, this was also my first time being nominated for something at this level.”