Bodies glistened on the stage of the Carl Sandburg Auditorium as men and women from NIU and the community competed in Greek Physique 2006.

Steve Moriarty, a sophomore kinesiology and physical education major representing Sigma Phi Epsilon, won first place in the overall men’s competition.

“I’m ecstatic. I saw someone from my house win it last year, and he told me I could win it this year. It’s just amazing,” Moriarty said.

Renea Martin, a senior biology major, took first place in the women’s division.

“I feel great. It was worth all the work. It was fun, and I got to meet a lot of people,” Martin said. She is looking forward to competing more in the future.

Competing in front of a fairly crowded auditorium, contestants were divided into sub-classes for the first round of competition.

The men were divided into four weight classes: bantam, light-weight, middle-weight and heavy-weight, each class advancing their top two competitors to the final men’s round. The women made up the final class.

The competition was divided into two parts. The first part was individual one minute routines performed by each contestant.

After performing individually, contestants were split up by class and took part in a compulsory round where each person showed four relaxed poses and eight mandatory poses. Then there was a 30-second “pose down,” for each contestant to show their final flexes to the judges.

As each class participated in the compulsory round, the contestants were required to make a series of “quarter right turns” achieving a 360 degree view of each person, flexing their arms, legs, back and abdominal muscles.

To achieve the chiseled look of defined muscles, contestants trained for months; dieting, working out, tanning and practicing poses.

The crowd was strong throughout the entire competition, yelling encouragement to their fraternity brothers, sorority sisters and friends. Catcalls could be heard throughout the auditorium as contestants flexed their way through the competition.

“The event was put together very well. It had a very good format and it was very entertaining,” said Kyle Wright, a senior corporate communication major and member of Phi Kappa Theta. “It was fun to see my best friend, Steve Geuss, up there competing for such a good cause,”

Proceeds from Greek Physique 2006 will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and be used to purchase new toys for the NIU Day Care Center.