1999 NPC Heart of Texas (The Show)
By -jabber



As I said, this was a fairly small show, so it was a tribute to the promoter
that there was a pretty good turn-out two hours away (two and a half hours
if you don't drive like a maniac) from Dallas and about one hour away from
Austin.  Or maybe, there's nothing else to do in Temple (to distract folks)
so everyone shows up?  

It was a good Texas show, meaning reasonably polite but lively audience.
The MC was Rex Gabriel an on-air personality in the great little city of
Corpus Christi and a bodybuilder himself.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if
he's done this before, as he got confused a couple times - but was pleasant
and oftentimes humorous (and not really annoying like some other "groan"
MC's - won't mention names here).

Fitness woman:

Yes, there was only one!  So with no competition, she won.  Unfortunately,
Toni Marcello really wasn't in that great of condition for a fitness
competitor, nor was her routine that dynamic, but...  She was a large VERY
attractive young brunette.  So I had no problem watching her - where ARE
these types of women in real life?  Sheesh!

Lightweight Novice women:

Novice simply means they had never won a novice class yet.  It does not mean
this is necessarily their first show.  Therefore you have some women who may
look frightened on stage; others who look at home.  Unfortunately, this show
did not have an Open class, so Novice is all we got...

We had 5 lightweights, they only announced the ones in the top 3 so,
finishing outside the top 3 were Pamela Stile from nearby Killeen, a young
black fbb with great abs and Monique Crowson, all the way from Indianapolis,
IN, a very thin-looking black fbb with stellar abs - both of these, their
abs way outclassed the rest of their physiques.

In 3rd was Karol Keller (who also entered the Master's division), for
Austin, TX.  In 2nd was Charlotte Duncan, also from arguably the coolest
city in Texas, Austin.  She was an attractive blonde in good overall
condition.  Winning the lightweight was Sonja Ala, a short-haired red-head
from the Dallas suburb of Irving.  She was very nicely defined, and part of
her appeal was great posture and bodybuilding lines.  Again, no reason to
boo the judges.  But as I looked at the top 3 here, none of them had good
legs!  Interesting.

Middleweight Novice women:

In 3rd place was Nikita Driscoll from Spring, TX (I have no idea where that
is).  She had fairly loose abs and needs a little work to do better in
subsequent shows.  In 2nd place was Tammy Lemaster from not too far away San
Angelo, TX.  And definitively winning this class was the woman with visible
veins in her abs, Monica Auvenshine, from another Dallas suburb, North
Richland Hills.  She easily blew away the competition, mainly with great
conditioning and a hard look.  She had slight structural flaws (nothing
fatal), but at this level, she was impressive.

Heavyweight Novice women:

This class was a complete no-brainer, with only two competitors, with
markedly varying levels of bodybuilding acumen being brought to the table.
In 2nd was Lori Dillard, a young black woman from Austin, TX.  She had a
pleasant, relaxed look posing on stage, but that didn't hide the fact that
she was way-outclassed by 1st place Shannon Stegall, also from Austin.  The
blonde Shannon actually had nice lines, looked good when posing, but a bit
soft when relaxed.  Slight dieting fine-tuning will make her a force to be
reckoned with in the future.

Overall Novice women:

We had the refined upper body of red-head lightweight, Sonja Ala, with no
poorly conditioned legs, we had the very conditioned middleweight Monica
"veins in her abs" Auvenshine, replete with some structural flaws - most
noticeably shoulders not broad enough for the amount of muscle she was
carrying, and the nice pleasing proportions of the slightly softish all over
heavyweight Shannon Stegall.  Rightfully so, the superior conditioning of
Ms. Auvenshine won out as she got the overall - and gets kicked out of the
novice to the open class.

Epilogue:

At the Lone Star (the show I refuse to review), Monica Auvenshine won the
middleweight and overall in the open class - and is on her way...