Ahh, college - the home of higher learning, the proverbial Ivory Towers, the.. ok, who am I kidding. Nowadays most students go to college to indulge in a 4 year beer-laden party. However there are still students out there that are not only there to fine tune their minds, but also their bodies. The participants of the NPC Western Collegiate's exemplify that.

Exemplify - now there's a college level word for ya.

Drawing from the western states of the U.S. - Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington - the turnout for the competition on the women's side was a bit lackluster. Out of the 8 states to draw from, only 9 competitors showed up. According to my college level math, that's an average of 1.125 competitors per state. Ok, so maybe that's junior high math, but you get the point.

For those that did step on stage to compete, there were some standouts. Erica Sammy, the eventual overall winner, displayed more muscle than any other competitor and had great upper body conditioning. The only knock on Erica is that she seems a bit nervous on stage and has a hard time looking out into the crowd. She seems to fixate on an object near the ceiling to sooth her nerves, and although it isn't that noticeable when she's doing her solo callouts, when she's in the comparisons it stands out.

Patty Cotrelli-Ramos was competing for the third weekend in a row. Although the outcome wasn't as good as the previous two - 1st place at the Figure Nevada and SoCal shows - she did come away with a second place short class finish, being narrowly beat out by Sammy by one point. Patty had great stage presence, as well as a v-taper that was the best of any figure competitor that day.

Another standout in the short class was Debra Gallegos, who had a tight physique, but perhaps lacked the size that Erica Sammy presented.

Finally, the tall class winner, Niel Arnold, sported a sleek physique and an infectious smile. She also had one of the cooler suits in the prejudging, a shimmering black and gold one-piece (see 'Bests' insert on right for more).

Class dismissed. Have a good summer.

Did you compete at the NPC Western Collegiate show? Email us, theres a good chance we have additional photos of you.

^TOP OF PAGE