The 1978 Mr. Ball State Bodybuilding champion, Rick Rutledge, watched with scrutinizing eyes as 13 Ball State students flexed their tanned and toned muscles Thursday night for the 32nd Mr. and Ms. Ball State Bodybuilding Competition.
Rutledge was one of the judges who named this year's Ms. Ball State, freshman Erica Gilkerson, and Mr. Ball State, senior Dorian Haywood, who also won the contest two years ago.
Bodybuilding takes dieting, weightlifting and a foundation of good genetics, Rutledge said.
"Basically, you look in the mirror, and you start shaking your body to see what you need to work on," Rutledge said.
He said judges look at who has the best body parts and how well-developed the muscles are.
"You look for symmetry and how well-proportioned people are," Rutledge said.
The upper body should be proportional to the lower body, as well as the right side equal to the left side.
The contestants went through several phases in the competition with women performing first and men second.
First, the competitors stand in a line as judges call out a specific muscle to flex or direction to turn. Next, each participant performs an individual routine set to music of their choice.
Finally, all the competitors come back on stage in a line, and the judges move them around as they take one last look.
Rutledge said Gilkerson had the best abdominals he'd ever seen for Mr. or Ms. Ball State. He also judged Haywood two years ago, when he won Mr. Ball State the first time.
"It's a real discipline," Rutledge said. "This is the best year I've ever seen for the two top winners."
Gilkerson said she is on the Ball State Gymnastics team, which just completed the Mid-American Conference Championships two and one half weeks ago.
She said she has only been able to diet since the gymnastics' championships ended because otherwise she would have had no energy for championships.
Gilkerson had considered entering the bodybuilding competition since the beginning of the year but finally decided to enter in October.
Since then, she kicked her training up a notch above her teammates.
"It was tough because everyone else got to go home after [gymnastics] practice, and I had to stay and lift," she said. "This was something that I wanted to do, and all the hard work paid off."
Gilkerson said she saw her brother participate in bodybuilding competitions and received advice from him during her training.
Haywood said he won in 2003, his sophomore year, and didn't enter last year because he wanted to let somebody else win. He has been bodybuilding for seven months and spent the last two months dieting to prepare for Thursday night's contest.
He said he craves a lot while dieting, and as soon as the competition ended, he went out to get a pineapple pizza.
Haywood said his parents have always been supportive of him and even drove up from Florida to see him compete for Mr. Ball State. But he doesn't participate in the contest to feed his ego, he said.
"I don't do this to show-off," he said. "I do this for the crowd."
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