Marquette Mustangs Pony Up at 'Pun-Off'

Marquette High School's wordplay competition Thursday proved to be an entertaining afternoon filled with clever jokes, innuendo and an engaged student body. Simply put, it was a whole lot of pun.

The student attendees at the event in the school auditorium laughed, cheered, booed and shuddered—all in the spirit of the afternoon—at puns that ranged from witty to dumbfounding and everything in between.

Some of the highlights of the afternoon included puns based on ...

• Northern Italy's "Battle of the Oranges" festival ("Orange you glad nobody died?" — J.P. Morray, freshman, Ballwin) 

• Drew Barrymore's recently speculated pregnancy ("Maybe she was just eating a lot of Prego sauce." — Gage Gelert, senior, Ballwin)

• Farmers struggling with their crops and livestock ("That must have felt like Hail for the farmer." — Caleb Howard, freshman, Ballwin. Also, "I really drought he's going to overcome this one."  — Mitch Finnogan, senior, Chesterfield)

• The Mizzou Tigers and St. Louis Billikens getting invited to the NCAA basketball tournament ("I can't wait til they Post the scores."  — Mary Baker, junior, Chesterfield)

Marquette High School's 4th Annual Pun-Off Winners:

1st Place — Ryan Blake, junior, Ballwin
2nd Place — Jeff Klein, junior, Chesterfield
3rd Place — Mary Baker, junior, Chesterfield
4th Place — Mitch Finnogan, senior, Chesterfield
5th Place — Chris Jablonski, junior, Chesterfield