2011 Shredderbuilt NPC Texas State Natural Championships

In 1997 when I decided to put on the first Texas Shredder Classic, people told me that drug-free bodybuilding would draw a fringe element but would never get the big numbers. Not being one to follow along blindly, I ignored that advice. We got 55 competitors for that first show and haven’t looked back, growing every year since 1998 and drawing 210 in 2011.

With the tremendous success of the Shredder Classic, Diana Hurley—my copromoter and girlfriend—and I decided to take another chance by putting on the Shredderbuilt Texas State Natural Championships as the final NPC Texas contest of the year. Our goal for our first year was 100 competitors. We got 192 amazing athletes crossing the stage on Saturday, November 19, to the delight of a packed house at the Hendrickson High School Performing Arts Center in Pflugerville.

We had some incredible stories going at the Texas State Natural Championships. In spite of her battle with breast cancer and the side effects of chemotherapy, Diana directed all of the behind-the-scenes work that made the show go more smoothly than any we’ve ever done.

On the subject of breast cancer, our women’s open bodybuilding champion, Venessa Barnard, is a breast cancer survivor who had the last of a series of surgeries just two years ago. Venessa looked incredible in taking the title, edging out 50-year-old phenom, Janett Martell.

At 46, our men’s open and masters champ, Mark Domme, was supershredded and vanquished all of the young guns. Our novice women’s champ, Patti Gondeck, lost 126 pounds en route to her title; and masters runner-up Patrick Howard competed at the NPC Lackland Classic and this show during his two weeks of R & R from Afghanistan!

What made the Texas State Naturals superspecial was the amazing camaraderie of the athletes backstage as they celebrated the end of the 2011 season. Congratulations to all of our athletes, and thank you to all of the volunteers, sponsors and bodybuilding fans who made the 2011 Shredderbuilt NPC Texas State Natural Championships a tremendous success.

Note regarding the photo below left of me playing guitar: Several months before the contest I thought it would be a cool idea if I did a slight rewrite of George Strait’s country hit “If It Wasn’t for Texas.” I would adjust the final verse to honor the NPC Texas and sing the song to open the show.  As I was driving to the finals, I started thinking, “Oh, boy, maybe that wasn’t such a great idea!” Cold feet! Being one to perform at my best under pressure, however, I came through—the song went beautifully and nobody booed. Thanks to the audience for humoring my fantasy of being a country music star—if only for two minutes.  And thank you to our official hair and makeup artist, Rebecca Thomas of Adara Salon, for sending me several text messages praising my performance (Rebecca is Willie Nelson’s granddaughter).

 

Men Bodybuilding

Open Lightweight

1) Jose Luis Rodriguez

2) Marc Gallegos

3) Travis Nix

4) Matt Jansen

5) Visoth Am

 

Open Middleweight

1) Mark Domme

2) Emmanual Ekortarh

3) Matthew Surratt

4) Eleazar Cobos

5) Gary Henton

 

Men’s Overall: Mark

Domme

 

Novice Lightweight

1) Marc Gallegos

2) Justin Fox

3) Steve Juengert

4) Mario Arguellez Jr

5) Reynaldo Cisneros

 

Novice Middleweight

1) David Archer

2) Chris Chigbu

3) Cedric Murphy

4) Chris Brown

5) Reginald Williams

 

Novice Heavyweight

1) Paul Adeleke

 

Masters Over-40

1)  Mark Domme

2)  Patrick Howard

3)  Raul Ochoa

4)  Gary Henton

5)  Steve Juengert

 

Masters  Over-50

1) Chas Briscoe

2) James Skipworth

3) Ulysses Moore

 

Teen

1) Devon Robinson

2 ) Brandon Page

 

Men’s  Physique

1) Stan Newton

2) Leslie Walden

3) Hugh Tillman

4) Gabe Escobar

5) Andrew Cofield

 

Women’s Divisions

Open Bodybuilding

1) Venessa Barnard

2) Janett Martell

3) Lauren Siegle

 

Novice Bodybuilding

1) Patricia Gondeck

 

Masters  Bodybuilding

1)  Janett Martell

2)  Lauren Siegle

3) Claudia Saucedo

4) Patricia Gondeck

 

Women’s Fitness

1) Donna

Giarratano

 

Figure A

1) Christy Abrams

2) Darlene Trent

3) Donna

Giarratano

4) Ashley Pardo

5) Briesen Cooper

 

Figure B

1) Elena Erickson

2) Natasha Reyes

3) Kristie Avon

4) Elena Martino

5) Sheri DiMaggio

 

Figure Overall: Christy

Abrams

 

Masters Figure
over 35

1) Darlene Trent

2) Elena Erickson

3) Kristie Avon

4) Christy Abrams

5) Mai Carpenter

 

Masters Figure
over 45

1) Donna Giarratano

2) Keri Fruge

3) Evelyn Flaharty

 

Bikini A

1) Isabel Roderick

2) Melissa Lukon

3) Shinda Obey

4) Leslie Therrell

5) Sarah Huggins

 

Bikini B

1) Janessa Mitchell

2) Jamie De La Rosa

3) Lilah King

4)Stefanie Miller

5) Ashley Gonzales

 

Overall Bikini: Isabel

Roderick

 

Women Bikini Masters

1) Karin Traber

2) Tanya Mott

3) Lori Taplin

4) Tiffany Blackmon

5) Carey Hobbs

 

Note: Dave’s new e-book, The Texas Shredder Mass Workout, is now available at www.X-Workouts.com.

Editor’s Note: See Dave Goodin’s blog at www.IronManMagazine.com. Click on the blog selection in the top menu bar. To contact Dave directly, send e-mail to [email protected]. IM