James S – 1st Place Mr. Fitness / 5th Place Open Middle Weight
Alicia C – 1st Place Novice Figure / 4th Place Bikini
Taniya B – 1st Ms. Fit Body / 2nd Place Open Figure Short
Kevin T– 5th Place Open Light Heavy Weight
James was coming off a strong showing from the Hercules so we made the decision to bounce back for the Naturalmania. This time however, we entered him into the Mr. Fitness class as well. This turned out to be a very good decision. James ended up winning the class and $500 cash. He is the first member of Team SUF to enter in the Mr. Fitness class. Solid first time performance. This class win will open up alot of new things to James from a modeling and marketing perspective. The team is very pleased and happy for him.
His second trip to the stage was for a very serious and highly competitive open middle weight class. This class had some real freaks in it. James held his own but some of the same issues caught up with him; posing and leg size were once again the culprits. These are going to be issues that will take a long time to address, but once they are James will be back in the running for his pro card.
Alicia had a very rough time at the Hercules. She ended up placing last place in both of her classes. There were issues with her tan, makeup, and overall conditioing. After the show she made the promise to herself and me to right the wrongs of the Hercules. She went above and behind to pinpoint the things that she felt went wrong with the Herc prep. We worked together to make the changes needed to place Alicia back in contention. The results speak for themselves. I was pretty much teary eyed when I took her final photos before the show. I was so proud of what she was able to accomplish. I knew at that moment that little would stand in her way.
Alicia in her redemption journey took 1st place in the novice figure class, and took 4th in a deep bikini class. This was the perfect turn around story. Double last place finishes to 1st place and top 4. Amazing.
Taniya was another team member that had some stage presence and conditioning issues at the Hercules. This was not the case for the Naturalmania. This girl was like night and day. Her conditioning was nailed, her color perfect, hair and make up also spot on. The only problem was that no one else showed up for her Ms. Fitbody class. This was a devastating blow as this was the class that we really focused on. Our goal was to reproduce something similar to what Jessica had done at the Hercules; go pro in Fit Body and take a top 3 in figure. Unfortunately this would not be the case. Taniya did however take 2nd place in the open figure short class. I honestly had her at 1st place, easily. Taniya was the best prepped and best looking female at the show. HANDS DOWN !
We are going to replicate the same package we brought to the Naturalmania next year as Taniya looks to hit the Nancy Andrews Northeast Classic as a warm up show the the Hercules.
Kevin was coming off a solid 2nd place (missed 1st by 1 point) in the Novice heavyweight class at the Hercules. We made the decision to abandon the chase for the novice title and begin to season Kevin in the open classes. We were back and forth on the decision to go heavyweight or light heavyweight. Eventually the decision was made that Kevin looked better conditioned as a light heavyweight with no real sacrifice in terms of mass.
The move to light heavyweight was a good decision as there were only 2 heavy weights at the show. Never fun to be in a shallow class. Light heavyweight was a rough, tough, and deep class. The overall winner of the show came out of this class. I honestly had Kevin at 3rd in a worst case. The 2nd place guy was a freak, and future pro, but his color and posing were off dramatically. So the argument in my head could of even been made for 2nd.
Then the results came back as 5th. Kevin and I were both devastated. A 3rd place finish I could make sense of and explain to him the reasoning behind it. 5th caught us both completely off guard. The main issue we need to address with Kevin is his overall leg size, and trust me we are working on it. This guy is NOT a 5th place guy, he is a future pro..mark my words.
I told Kevin not to take it personally and to use it as motivation for next year. He too plans to journey to the Nancy Andrews Northeast Classic as a warmup to the Hercules.
