Gallery
3 Photos

From left, seniors Caryn Iwanaga and Adam Gonzales were among the last two remaining in the game. Royce Park, right, tied for most eliminations.

After 43 days of strategizing, staking out and launching socks at targets, two Diamond Bar High School seniors emerged as the winners of this year’s Bounty Hunter game: Caryn Iwanaga as the last player standing and Royce Park tying with Iwanaga for most eliminations.

The class-wide game for seniors awarded $50 to the winner and $25 to the player with the most eliminations, but because Iwanaga and Park tied for most eliminations by ousting six targets each, they both received $25.

“I was honestly really excited for Bounty Hunter,” Park said. “I didn’t really know what to expect, but I really was planning on just being able to go around and have fun with my fellow students and just get as many people out as possible.”

Park said that his most memorable moment of Bounty Hunter was when he stayed on campus from 8 to 10 p.m. to eliminate his target, Jerry Cheung, who had orchestra rehearsal. According to Park, Cheung hid on campus for two hours after rehearsal ended and managed to escape.

“I personally liked it a lot not only because I won $25, but especially because of the fact that you can get people as your target that you don’t know… It’s like a good chance to meet new people and just a way for everyone in your class to have fun and get together,” Park said.

Iwanaga said that when only five players remained, she and Patrick Nguyen teamed up to oust Adam Gonzales, although Nguyen was eliminated in the process. After many failed attempts at targeting Gonzales, such as sneaking up on him during his tuba lesson at school, Iwanaga finally eliminated her last target on Mar. 26.

“I think Bounty Hunter was definitely one of my senior year highlights, not just because I won but also because it was something my friends did together and all of the competitiveness with my friends was like so funny,” Iwanaga said via Facebook.

Senior class president Megan Young said that she wanted Bounty Hunter to run smoothly without any problems in rules or safety so that future senior classes could participate in the game and carry on the tradition. According to Young, participants this year were more active than the senior class of 2017, which participated in the last Bounty Hunter game.

“I think everyone really enjoyed it. They were a lot more enthusiastic about it than I thought,” Young said. “[This year], people moved fast, like right when the game started, everyone was out getting targets.”