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SIERRA VISTA — The 25th edition of the Copper Classic was supposed to be the most wide-open in years.
But when the smoke settled, there were two bodybuilders who stood pecs and lats above the rest.
Tyler Mayer of Phoenix, who was eliminated last year in his middleweight class by eventual champion Neal Griffin, made it all the way in his second attempt, claiming top male overall Saturday night at the Buena Performing Arts Center.
Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Tracy Thompson of Vail, a newcomer to the Copper Classic and bodybuilding competitions in general, blew away the competition on her way to top female honors.
  
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“I was extremely nervous,” Thompson said. “I thought I calmed down a little bit after the first set.”
Thompson, a 39-year-old Tech Sgt. at Davis Monthan who will be retiring from the Air Force in nine months, began bodybuilding in 2001.
“A couple of things got me into it,” Thompson explained. “One was a brain tumor — that got me in. Doctors told me (working out) would slow down the process.”
Thompson said she was first diagnosed in 1994 and that the tumor is still there and her doctors keep constant watch on its size.
Thompson said judges told her she won because of her “overall package.”
“It’s just the persistance of lifting weights, studying weights and perfecting it,” she said. “I’ve also gotten a lot of support from my friends and family.”
For Mayer, the win was his first in three competitions, but it will be his last for at least the next two years. On Wednesday, he goes under the knife for ACL knee surgery.
He hopes to use that hiatus to learn more about the sport and to come back to the stage with more muscle mass.
“I knew coming in what I had to do to improve,” Mayer said. “I needed to come in fuller so I put on a few more pounds ... I dieted less weeks — I dieted too long last time. I changed a lot of my carb-loading and depletion so I looked fuller.”
Mayer said there were other competitors in Saturday night’s event who had more muscle mass than he, and that he won the big trophy because of his superior symmetry.
Mayer said he hopes to come back 10 pounds heavier in two years.
“My goal is to compete in Natural Olympia, that’s my ultimate goal,” Mayer, a 25-year-old radiation tech, said. “I know what I need to do as far as size and how to diet to bulk up. I’ll have a lot of time off after surgery to get ready.”
Sierra Vista’s Cedric Hill, 20, who won in the lightheavyweight class last year only to come up short to Griffin in the overall, wasn’t able to make it through his division this year, as the bulkier Mark Erdman took first. Matt Serviolo was the winner in men’s heavyweight, Elmer Caradang was the winner in men’s lightweight, and earned the prize for being top male poser.
Thompson squared off in the top overall finals with women’s lightweight winner Marianne Carey of Sierra Vista and Loni Barela, also a local. Paula Rollins won the Model Search Category, Gyda Loveres won Ms. Figure and Ms. Physique and Amanda Butz of Yuma was Ms. Fitness.
Elmer M. Carandang wrote on Mar 18, 2008 11:57 AM:
I just saw my name in the 16th paragraph and although it is too late to respond to it and I made requests in the competition to change my name by changing the Caradang to Carandang, still the wrong spelling has been provided to you.
Please have it changed to Elmer Carandang.
Many thanks and more power!!! "