Five Baker theater students claimed the Golden C Wrench when they took first place at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 5, held on Jan. 18-24 in Bloomington, Minnesota.

The team, named “The Majchraks” after one of its members, was composed of seniors Ryan Bearrick, Joey Majchrzak and Cheyenne Queen, junior MacKenzie Sammons and sophomore Emi Kniffen. They picked the name to confuse the judges when it was announced.

“We named our team because we thought it would be funny to see people try to pronounce it,” Sammons said. “It was really great to see people cheer for us because they would be like ‘let’s go… you guys!’”

This is the seventh year a team of Baker students participated in the Stage Crew Showdown competition, but the first time a team brought home gold.

“I went in just hoping to have a good time,” Kniffen said. “I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was, until I learned we were the first Baker team to ever make it to the finals.”

Fourteen teams from the region, including schools of all sizes from Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa, tested technical skills with tasks such as hanging lights, tying knots and making costume changes. Scoring was based on how quickly and accurately each task was completed.

In addition to winning the division, the Baker team also took home the Stagecraft Spirit trophy.

Tom Heiman, who is the adviser for the technical theater team, liked his team’s creativity when it came to showing spirit.

“While some of the other teams did basketball cheers, our team got up and cheered for the techies,” Heiman said. “The whole room was screaming with them by the end of it.”

After finally getting a taste of winning, Heiman hopes to keep this traveling trophy for another few years before having to hand it to another team.

“We are buffing up the trophies for everybody to see,” Heiman said. “We will defend the trophy next year and see if we can hold on to them.”