Spotlighting Cougs

Lance Lijewski Evergreen SEB reporter

Koalas with chlamydia, women in their underwear and a heavy metal interpretive dancer presented themselves to students, staff and faculty alike yesterday afternoon in the CUB Lair.

The second round of Coug Spotlight included fifteen performances in total.

“I was very satisfied with the diversity and the outcome,” said Liz Lin, special events coordinator for the Student Entertainment Board. “During the first round we only had three people signed up. This time, we had a much larger turnout.”

Comedians, dancers and independent musicians all took center stage. However, one band dominated the competition, rallying 45 percent of votes by the end of the show.


The Jets, a band composed of several friends, performed a mash-up of two songs. The band was accompanied by junior psychology major Gabriel Dumbrique, who danced off-stage.


“I’m a friend of theirs,” Dumbrique said. “I was walking back from an exam when I started joking around about dancing as they played. They took me seriously, and asked me to do it. So I did.”


The first-round second-place winner was Justin Caubat, a sophomore civil engineering major and member of the band. Caubat was excited to have dominated the performance.


“I knew we could do it,” he said. “We have a lot of talent in the group. When I was talking to Liz about returning, I asked if I could add more people to my performance. She said that was fine, and this has kind of become my act.”

Falling far behind with only 14 percent of the votes but still grabbing second place for yesterday’s round, senior humanities major Leon Peha caught the attention of voters with a mix of Angels at My Gate, by Grantby. Peha mixed the song live using a synthesizer.

“I’m surprised anybody liked it,” he said. “I mess around with this stuff at home. When I heard about the first round and realized I missed it, I figured I should give it a shot.”

The top three artists from yesterday’s show will advance to the final round Nov. 13 and battle against last round’s top three musicians.

“Instead of two performers from each round, like we had announced before, three from each will compete in the final competition,” Lin said. “Out of those six, one will advance to the final round of Coug Spotlight next semester and be given the opportunity to be featured in Springfest.”