Dakota Days Royalty

The annual Yotes Got Talent and Royalty Reveal rounded out day three of Dakota Days. There were many talents that performed in the show including singing, guitar playing, whistling, tap dancing, and even the bag pipes made an appearance. Following Yotes Got Talent was the anticipated Royalty Reveal, but before the Royalty was announced Dakotathon made an announcement.

Dakotathon is a philanthropic organization that raises money for the local Children’s Miracle Network. They are looking for dancers for their annual 24-hour dance-a-thon. The overall chairs also played their recruitment video for the year bringing cheers and applause from the crowd. Dakotathon is one of the largest philanthropic organization on campus and their goal this year is to raise $61,000.

After the members of Dakotathon were done the Royalty Reveal was ready to start. Background information on how the reveal works is numerous USD students are nominated from different campus organizations. After the first group is picked students have a week to vote for who they want in the top 14 which is made up of seven men and seven women. Once voting ceases the top 14 advance to the next round which entails an interview and an essay and this round lasts until Saturday. Judges from the University’s administration pick who they believe represent what it means to be Mr. and Miss Dakota. The winners are announced at halftime of the D-days game and will hold the title of Mr. and Miss Dakota for the rest of their lives.

The final 14 candidates for this year’s Dakota Days Royalty are: Cassondra Keller, Lindsay Montileaux, Katey Ulrich, Alayan Ackerman, Rachel Mihulka, Alex Parkinson, and Ashlin Peitzmeier for the women and Clay Hoffman, Robby Jeffries, Joe Erickson, Josh Rogers, Charles Gageby, Brent Olinger, and Steven Payne for the men.

A side note about the final contestants is all but one is not a member of a Greek house. The houses that are represented are Alpha Phi, Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Delta Theta, Pi Kappa Alpha, Lambda Chi Alpha, Delta Tau Delta, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

An update will come to the blog once the final picks are in and the 2014 Mr. and Miss Dakota are crowned on Saturday.

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This years Mr. and Miss Dakota title belongs to Brent Olinger and Lindsay Montileaux. They received the judges votes based off of interview, an essay, and student voting but the voting only held 10% of the final choice. Brent and Lindsay will hold the title forever but will be invited back to next years Dakota Days to pass on the crown to the next royals.

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