Friends who gathered at Brittany's Restaurant in Lake Ridge held their breath when "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest called Travis Tucker to the stage Wednesday night.
They jumped up and cheered when Seacrest told the Manassas resident he had been spared the ax that eliminated two other Fox network contestants on the stage with Tucker.
TV viewers voted him one of the 16 "Idol" finalists remaining. He'll perform again Monday night.
"What a great celebration," said the Rev. Rick Veit, priest at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Woodbridge, where Tucker and his family are members. "We were beside ourselves."
The restaurant has become the twice-weekly hangout for church friends and family who are following Tucker's quest for the TV reality show's top spot.
Veit was happy with Tucker's performance earlier in the week, when the 21-year-old University of Virginia student danced as he sang Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long."
Tucker scored positive feedback from judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and even acid-tongued Simon Cowell, who apologized for a comment he made the previous week when he told Tucker his song wasn't good enough for a hotel lobby.
Instead, Cowell called Tucker "a born performer."
"He's doing great," Veit said. "They keep pushing his buttons. I think they're pushing him to jump up and do more. He's handling it well and having a fun time."
Tucker returns to St. Margaret's when he's home from the Charlottesville university where he is a second-year student.
"He'll come back and do special things," Veit said. "He wrote an awesome piece last summer and he and his father sang it."
Veit described Tucker as humble.
"He's got amazing gifts, but doesn't flaunt them," he said.
Tucker graduated from Osbourn Park High School, where he was an all-area soccer standout and honor student. He played soccer at New York University, before transferring to U.Va. in the fall.
Friend and college roommate Steven Jansen has known Tucker since elementary school.
"Travis has always been extremely talented and has done well in everything he has tried," Jansen wrote in an e-mail. "He has always been a natural performer and excels when he's in the spotlight. Everyone is excited to see him breaking it all out on national TV."
Tucker is taking the semester off at U.Va. while he pursues the "American Idol" title. He's in a five-year education program and plans to teach math when he graduates.
Even at U.Va., Tucker has carved music into campus life. He performs with a pop band, and founded ReMix, a hip-hop a cappella group.
"He's very proud of it," Jansen wrote about ReMix. "He's spent a lot of his time with them. He wanted to do something different than most of the groups here and he definitely has. They have been gaining popularity since the day they started."
Tucker isn't the only Prince William resident in the spotlight on reality TV. Bianca Smith and Debbie Cloyed, from Woodbridge, are vying for $1 million on CBS' "The Amazing Race."
On Tuesday night, the lifelong friends were among 11 two-person teams who flew to Lima, Peru, for their round-the-world adventure. The duo came in first place in the show's first episode and claimed a $10,000 prize.
Smith, 26, is a high school teacher in Woodbridge. Cloyed, 25, is a photographer who now lives in Los Angeles.
To reach MARTY MORRISON: 540/374-5423 mmorrison@freelancestar.com