According to South Carolina NPC District Chairman and super promoter Tres Bennett, with over 220 athletes competing and a packed audience, this year's Muscular Development--sponsored NPC Jr USA Championships was a tremendous success.

In the men's show, the bantamweight class was won by the energized Michael Echevarria who, during his posing routine, asked God for his assistance and prayed that he'd emerge victorious.  On this particular night, the heavens were listening and Michael walked away with the 2008 NPC Jr USA Bantamweight title.

In the lightweight division, the judges chose mass and conditioning over pure symmetry and cuts when they, unanymously, awarded Kelvin Moore as the class champion.  2^nd place finisher Gene Johnson has a very bright future in this sport if he continues adding quality mass to his already incredible structure!

The middleweight class was won by the supremely polished Michael Elgawly.  The second he walked on stage, he projected a certain aire of supremacy over the class.  The judges must have picked up the same vibe because Michael won with almost unanymous first place votes.  2^nd place Vincent Que, presented a great package of thick muscle, small joints, and great symmetry.  With just a tad of additional conditioning, Mr Que  should be a dangerous competitor in 5 weeks time when he competes at the 20088 NPC Jr Nationals in Chicago.

As I reported earlier, this 17-man class boiled down to 2 New Jersey natives.   And when the smoke cleared, it was Erik Ramirez who avenged the loss he sufferred just 5 weeks earlier to Kris Lecomte at the 2008 NPC New York Metropolitan Championships.   According to the judges, Ramirez's striated glutes and dyanamic performance were just too much for Lecomte to overcome on this particular night.  One look at the photos and you'll clearly see that both men have a very bright future in the sport.

In the heavyweight class, Rafael Jaramillo's incredible structure, small joints, and superb muscle separation enabled him to defeat the thickly muscled Marlon Ballesteros.  With another 5lbs of muscle and a little less bodyfat, Jaramillo will be a serious threat to win his pro card at the next pro-qualifer he enters.

 When the judges took one look at the 6'2", 245lb Cedric McMillan, there wasn't a single doubt in their minds that he'd emerge victorious in this class.  After all, he dominated the superheavyweights from start to finish.   Finishing in 2^nd was the super ripped Chad Secrist.; while 25-year old Brian Yerksy finished 3rd.  As a side note, Yersky might have finished significantly higher had he not been penalized for a lumpy looking deltoid muscle. 

In the otherall posedown, it came down to "mass" vs "conditioning" vs "muscle separation".  While Ramirez was the hardest and Jaramillo had the deepest lines, Cedric Mcmillan, at 245lbs, just outmuscled and outclassed the rest of the lineup and, in the end, emerged victorious.

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2008 NPC JR USA PHOTO GALLERY