» View a photo slideshow of the event

Muscles strained and veins popped as NIU students competed in the 20th annual Greek Physique competition.

The event was an amateur bodybuilding contest held in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium of the Holmes Student Center.

This year’s title for male and female Greek Physique champions went to Jason Brandenburg and Nicole Grant, respectively, as they were awarded trophies and crowned with laurel wreaths.

“It’s amazing,” Brandenburg, a junior physical education major, said. “After years of working out and the hours you spend, it all comes to a head.”

Grant, a senior elementary education major, had similar thoughts.

“I’ve been working out for a year and it was a long, hard trip, but it was all worth it,” Grant said.

Male second- and third-place champions were Jared Wexell and John Glorioso. Female second- and third-place champions were Brittany Gregus and Anna Koenig.

Organized by Phi Kappa Sigma and sponsored by Mountain Dew, the contest had 11 male and three female competitors pose and flex their oiled, muscular physiques for judges and the audience. Competitors posed and flexed to their choice of music in the first round before going on to two final rounds where the judges looked them over in a final examination.

The event was ticketed, but the collected proceeds went to the Breast Treatment Task Force, and some money went to the Pi Kappa Alpha house for the loss of their member Daniel Parmenter in the Feb. 14 shootings.

Judging the contest were Link Bass, Matt Minuth and Bob Bohaczyk, all of them bodybuilders and National Physique Committee members. Bohaczyk said the competitors were judged on size, muscularity and symmetry.

Hundreds of people filled the auditorium and made for a very responsive audience as they hooted and hollered words of encouragement and cat calls.

“The event’s very large; people come from all over the area,” said Tim Kupp, a junior undeclared business major and president of Phi Kappa Sigma.

“I think this is a great event and the members of Phi Kappa Sigma do an awesome job in bringing non-Greeks and Greeks alike to this event,” said Glenn Roby, a ‘91 graduate of NIU and chapter adviser of Phi Sigma Kappa.