The Slippery Rock Fitness and Wellness Club hosted a fitness expo at the Aebersold Recreation Center (ARC) on Saturday and Sunday.
The event included a mock powerlifting meet on Saturday and the Mr. and Ms. SRU Bodybuilding show on Sunday.
“This was an extremely collaborative event. There are so many names and I am so thankful. This event would not have been doable without plentiful, plentiful people that came together, bought in and had the same passion for this event that I do,” President of SRU’s Fitness and Wellness Club Matt Deemer said.
The show was brought back in 2023 after being halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to expose students to the gym in both strength sports and physique sports.
This year’s show included four classes: ‘Women’s Wellness’, ‘Women’s Figure’, ‘Men’s Classic Physique’ and ‘Men’s Physique’. All competitors within the club are required to be active SRU students.
This year’s champions were Taylor Kline (‘Women’s Figure’ and Ms. SRU), Madison Pintado-Morrice (‘Women’s Wellness’ and Ms. SRU), Nicco Mickens (‘Men’s Physique’ and Mr. SRU) and Sean Hanley (‘Men’s Classic Physique’ and Mr. SRU).
‘Women’s Figure’ and ‘Men’s Physique’ are focused on upper body musculature. ‘Women’s Wellness’ focuses on lower body musculature and ‘Men’s Physique’ looks at whole body musculature with emphasis on upper body and lower body symmetry. Athletes were able to sign up for any class.
“Its part of what makes our day unique as making the sport extremely accessible,” Deemer said.
Competitors were charged $25 as an entry fee with optional tanning which is a steep decrease from some of the larger competitions from sanctioned federations that could cost competitors much more to enter.
The show held pre-judging with mandatory poses where athletes did poses by themselves and were compared in a group by all people in the same class. Athletes were moved around on stage and asked to do different poses before judges tallied scores based on conditioning, visibility of muscle and body fat percentage.
“Posing is a massive part of the sport, being able to show the muscles and do the poses correctly to show off your musculature,” Deemer said. “You can have all the muscle in the world, if you don’t know how to pose, you won’t show it and there can be a guy that’s 20 pounds lighter than you that can look better on stage.”
The competition included 17 athletes with many competing in both divisions they were eligible for. Roughly 300 people were at the event including volunteers from the Honors College, Pre-Physical Therapy Club and Pre-Occupational Therapy Club.
“The athletes, they did such a spectacular job,” Deemer said. “I could not be happier with the group of people we had for the event. They were all enthusiastic, they all bought in. They all had so much fun with the day. They all practiced amazing sportsmanship. They went up to the judges, asked questions and wanted feedback.”
Deemer and the Fitness and Wellness Club worked with the exercise science department at SRU to market the event. It was offered as an opportunity for both professional development and volunteer hours in addition to the competition.
Sponsors included GNC Newcastle, Stage4 Training, Performance Inspired Nutrition and the Green Center for Massage and Wellness. The sponsors helped with raffles, donated to charities, gave out free samples to all athletes and held interactive activities for the expo.
The six judges were Stasi Longo, David Turk, Megan Chaney, Dan Cole, Lauren Green and Tristen Luplow.
“All [judges were] professional bodybuilders, all own their own companies, all took the time out of their day to come help these athletes all because they have a passion for the sport and want to help it grow.” Deemer said.
Longo, an SRU alumna and Organization of Competitive Bodybuilders (OCB) Hall-of-Famer, was the head judge for the day.
“The day was possible through her. She has been doing this her entire life. She is a lifelong proponent of natural bodybuilding,” Deemer said.
Luplow, the owner of Stage4 Training, flew in from Texas and brought first-place trophies for the champions so they would have something to celebrate their accomplishments.
“It’s such an amazing weekend. People’s families come out, friends and family to support their athlete. It’s such a collaborative event. It’s people’s first exposure to bodybuilding. We do so much work with this event, everyone does, to make it an enjoyable event for athletes, judges and sponsors,” Deemer said.
Part of what makes the weekend so special, Deemer said, are some of the features SRU’s Fitness Expo has that are not always present at bodybuilding competitions of similar sizes and budgets.
“It’s extremely unique,” Deemer said.
The uniqueness Deemer mentions is in reference to the true emulation of a larger competition while maintaining accessibility and low costs. He made sure to thank the sponsors and everyone involved for their help setting up tanning, the stage, lighting and other features that Deemer said are not commonly found in collegiate events and events with low costs.
“I have to thank my elective board. Nothing this weekend would have been possible without them…It truly takes a village to put on such a special event like this,” Deemer said. “I guarantee I am forgetting people right now. The amount of people that poured into this event and bought in and helped out, it’s at least 50 people I probably need to thank.”
More information is available about the club through their club page on SRU Core, the Fitness and Wellness Club at SRU, and their Instagram page, @srufitness.
