Lip Sync’ers are locked in

As they stood behind the stage curtains in the gymnasium at Berg Middle School Friday night, teacher Tyler Stewart turned to Steph Langstraat, the school’s assistant principal and his co-star and whispered, “Oh my God, we’ve doubled in size.”

Students, friends and family packed the rafters at the middle school gym Friday night for the school’s annual Lip Sync Battle, a fundraiser for the student council at Berg. Since kicking off the event three years ago, Stewart said it’s grown beyond belief, estimating on Friday the turnout had more than doubled from the year before.

Students from the middle school as well as their peers from the high school strutted their stuff across the stage at Berg on Friday night, with a series of performances that Stewart said have gotten even more elaborate this year than in past years. Stewart and Langstraat teamed up to perform a mashup of Justin Timberlake and Pink songs, and even though Stewart gave it his all, Langstraat’s high flying aerial act stole the show. Suspended by a system of ropes all eyes were on Langstraat, with her hair dyed pink and wearing a matching pink tutu, as she twirled and spun in the air. Even though the audience picked Langstraat as the winner, she said Stewart was the real winner on Friday night.

“I would have given up my title just to celebrate him and what he did tonight,” Langstraat said.

Buoyed by a high division that more than doubled in size this year, Stewart said the event has taken on a life of its own. Three years ago he had to pitch the idea to students, now they’re coming to him and asking to sign up on their own.

“It started off as a small event for students to work together as a team, it got a little more elaborate last year, and this year it’s gotten completely out of hand,” Stewart said. “It’s a monster.”

It wasn’t just bragging rights that were on the line Friday, State Farm agent Lonnie Portner also donated a $100 as prize money, which went to the winning middle school and the winning high school team. Derek Beiner, an eighth-grader at Berg said after his team finished in second place last year they were hungry for this year. Beiner’s team’s performance, which included Beiner dancing on stage in a giant red wig with cowboy boots brought the house down on Friday night and was good enough for them to take home first place in the middle school division.

“We’ve always been a funny group,” Beiner said. “We were going all out this year.”

They weren’t the only team that upped the ante this year, most of their competitors had plenty of props to sell their act to the audience as well. Teddie Brunsmann, a junior at Newton High School, was part of the winning high school division team. Their rendition of Greased Lightning included a mechanic’s creeper and a wooden car. Even as she was sliding across the stage Friday night Brunsmann said she wasn’t nervous, she loves performing too much.

“I did a song from Grease last year, it just took the crowd over, I wanted to bring it back and do it again,” Brunsmann said.

Even after the confetti had settled and Friday’s winners were announced, a sizable portion of the audience and the performers stuck around the middle school gym to help stack chairs and clean up from the organized chaos of the competition. Surrounded by friends and students, gushing that they’d remember her performance for years to come, Langstraat said she and Stewart couldn’t have pulled off the event without the support from staff members at the middle school.

“They gave up their Friday night to come hang with us,” Langstraat said. “That’s really cool.”

Contact David Dolmage at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or ddolmage@newtondailynews.com