Las Vegas, Nevada. July 25, 2009: If the assumption is that our nation is in the midst of a deep recession and the economy is in the tank, someone forgot to inform over 460 bodybuilders, figure, and bikini competitors who journeyed to Glitter City for the annual NPC USA Championships. With the introduction of the new bikini division this year and with over 80 women entering that inaugural competition, the event was collectively the largest NPC USA ever.
Once again promoted by Lindsay Productions, the show was staged at Artemus Ham Auditorium on the campus of University Nevada/Las Vegas.
Competitively, 42 contestants entered the women's bodybuilding division with seven competitors in the lightweight class, eight in the middleweights, 16 in the light-heavyweights, and 11 in the heavyweights.
Historically, and as women's bodybuilding goes, this year's event will be remembered as a night that belonged to competitors who have withstood the test of time in their career efforts as well as the aging process Winners, as well as runner-ups were all models of perseverance and the desire to ‘keep at it'.
THE LIGHTWEIGHTS- Dr. Negrete Can Take Your Breath Away
It was only a field of seven contestants, but the lightweight class managed to produce a winner who began her competitive career in 1985. Not '95 or '05...... EIGHTY FIVE. After a victory in the Des Moines Classic 24 years ago, Margaret Negrete had waited and hoped for a night like tonight. In 2001 she placed 11th at the NPC USA, and even after a 16th place finish at the 2002 NPC Nationals she still had designs on a top placing. She continued to compete regularly, often at the national level. Then came the 2009 NPC Masters Nationals and suddenly the 5-1, 113-pound Texan made her breakthrough. She won the over-35 lightweight class and finished second in the over-45 LW group. Clearly she was on a roll, and when she took the stage here, flashing an insanely well-developed set of abdominals and a polished overall stage presence, the El Paso anesthesiologist took the judges breath away. Not a bad year......not a bad career.
Runner-up Denise Dinger - who has no doubt had to endure every ‘humdinger' joke conceived by mankind - packed 108 pounds on her miniscule 4-11 frame and honed it to a level that was pleasing to the judge's eye. Another veteran competitor, Dinger has been training over 20 years, is now 45, and was the overall winner at the 1990 NPC Nevada. The Las Vegan prepped for this event by placing third at the recent NPC Master Nationals over-35, and fourth in the over-45.
Third-place went to Oregon's Laurie Smith. Making major improvements over the past year Smith blew through the 2008 competitive season with an overall victory at the NPC Oregon, a runner-up MW finish at the NPC Northwest, and seventh at the NPC Team Universe - also as a middleweight. Her drop down to the LW division was well advised and put her in a position to compete for the top placings.
Californian Brenda Beitia squeezed 115 pounds onto her 5-0 frame to capture the fourth-place spot, moving up two placings from her sixth-place USA finish in 2008. Beitia was also the LW winner at the 2008 NPC California.
Topping out at 4-ll, Texan Melinda Williamson claimed the fifth position weighing in at 107 pounds. A consistently solid placer at the USA, she has placed as high as second in 2006 and fourth in 2007. Williamson is also a former LW class winner at the NPC Lonestar Classic and the Europa Super Show.
THE MIDDLEWEIGHTS - One Small Step For Akila, One Giant Step To The Pro Ranks
It appears that Phoenix, Arizona, is once again becoming a hotbed for female bodybuilders (remember Sandy Riddell, Jackie Paisley and Lynne Pirie?) as Akila Pervis put an exclamation mark on her top 
middleweight placing at this year's USA. No stranger to the national level, Pervis has only recently rattled her cage significantly to gain notice. In 2007 she was a distant 15th -place finisher as a light-heavyweight at this contest. Then in 2008 she rocketed up to a third-place finish showing great overall balance in placing on the heels of winner Diana Tinnelle and runner-up Claire O'Connell. Here, she simply added the needed polish and finishing touches to present more of a pro look and she captured the class.
In a move that has been long overdue at this event, a second pro card was awarded for the first time, and Akila Pervis got the nod. So for any aspiring competitors who feel they have failed by placing 15th at a national-level event, remember Akila Pervis. Her leap from 15th to 3rd to 1st over a three-year period, along with the added pro card qualification should be motivation enough for any aspiring competitor.
With Pervis claiming the middleweight crown, it was Florida's Kirsten Haratyk who made the class race a legitimate one. Showing an equally sound and well-balanced overall physique, the 5-1, 118-pound Haratyk was a top choice of more than one observer. A winner of the lightweight class at the 2006 NPC Junior Nationals and a fifth-place LW finisher at the 2007 NPC Nationals, Haratyk's move up to the middleweight class has been to her advantage in how her physique is filling out muscularly. She has a better placing in the near future.
Third-placer Angela Robertson is a newcomer to the national level as a bodybuilder, but the switch from figure competitions looks to have been a seamless effort. Few will argue she has come a long way from the days where she finished tied for 16th along with 17 other contestants in her class at the 2006 NPC USA Figure Championships. No doubt her third-place finish here had to be much more to her liking.
Newly-crowned 2009 NPC California champion Patty Corbett claimed the fourth place spot. From Fremont, the 5-0, 125-pound automotive account clerk was a seventh-place finisher at the 2008 NPC USA as a lightweight - so her placings continue to move in an upward direction. Now 53, Corbett was competing at the NPC California as far back as 1987.
The Light-Heavyweights - Angie's Third Time Really Is A Charm
It would be difficult to envision any female competitor experiencing a more satisfying moment at this year's 
USA than Angie Salvagno. No doubt this Californian - who now makes Florida her home - was excited about winning her class, but she had done it before. She had been the light-heavyweight USA champion in both 2006 and 2007. In fact, before that pair of victories Salvagno had also been a fifth-place MW USA finisher in 2001 and a third-placer in this same light-heavyweight class in 2005. So, when she was announced as the winner of this class at the 2009 event she suddenly stood alone in the history of the USA Championships as the only woman to have won three USA crowns in the same class. Several competitors have won their class twice over the years, but no one, until Angie Salvagno, had ever won three.
All that said, it was the added icing on this USA cake that made Salvagno's evening complete. With her fellow weight class winners flanking her following the posedown, she was selected as the overall winner of the NPC USA - joining an impressive list of past winners including Iris Kyle, Denise Rutkowski, and Laura Creavalle.
And how did she look? Much like Angie Salvagno has always looked - highly conditioned from head to toe, complete with her patented razor-wire quads and thighs that scream with muscle separations.
Fittingly, Salvagno accomplished her trifecta in the largest of the four weight classes. And as fate would have it, the quality and competitiveness of this class was easily the stiffest of all the classes. It is doubtful Angie Salvagno would have wanted it any other way.
As evidence of the quality in this class of 16, runner-up Chris Sabo was not only a former overall winner at the NPC Junior Nationals, but she was the defending champion of this class. Sabo and Salvagno share a history at this contest as Sabo was the runner-up to Salvagno in 2006, and had finished sixth the year Salvagno won in 2007. Here, their head-to-head (or muscle-to muscle) meeting was interesting due to the vastly different types of physiques each woman possesses. Both were contest-ready, but on this night Salvagno was the judges' pick.
Third went to LaDawn McDay, who, until now, had done pretty well on flying under the radar. Competing since 2004 when she was the overall winner of the NPC Western Michigan, this Michigan native had quietly accumulated an impressive contest resume that most recently includes overall victories at the 2008 NPC Michigan and NPC Central States. From Lenda Murray's backyard, McDay will most assuredly have her day....and soon. She displayed plenty of quality muscle in all the right places.
Missouri's Lisa Boushard captured the fourth-place position with 138 quality pounds distributed on her 5-5 frame. An operations manager for Powerhouse Gym in St. Louis, Boushard was the light-heavyweight winner at the 2007 NPC Junior USA, and most recently placed second in the over-35 class at the 2009 NPC Masters Nationals.
Rounding out the top five light heavies was Florida's Kris Clark. As another of the veteran performers at this event, Clark's earliest contest efforts date back to 1983 when she competed in the now defunct Can-Am Championships. Surely one of the most thickly developed women in this class, the 5-4, 140-pound personal trainer has had a great run of contest entries thus far in 2009 having won the overall NPC Southern States title, and a light-heavyweight class victory at the NPC Masters Nationals.
Although Fatima Johnson missed placing in the top five of this class, she closely follows the primary storyline of this contest by virtue of the fact that she was the NPC USA middleweight champion in 1998 (over a decade ago), and is now 54 years old and in the best shape of her bodybuilding career.
The Heavyweights - Holly Geersen Takes A Crack At The Heavyweight Class and Wins
Colorado's Holly Geersen weighs 153 pounds in contest shape these days, but it wasn't always that way. Years ago when she began taking her contests seriously she strolled around contests with deeply chiseled 
quads and possessed the lean looks of a competitor who had the promise of high placings - it was just a matter of when. Well the time finally arrived at the 2009 NPC USA and Holly Geersen made the best of it in a class that was one short of a dozen.
On this night Geersen packed all 153 pounds on her 5-4 ½ frame and flexed her way to the top spot after several years of slugging it out at national-level events. An overall winner at the 2004 NPC Colorado, Geersen came close last year at this contest when she placed second to Isabelle Turell. In 2007 she placed fifth in the light-heavies, and in 2005 she was 11th in the heavyweight category. Her pattern of improvement has been far from a secret, she has made steady and consistent improvement year by year. A doctor of chiropractic, Geersen is a former barrel racer with a dramatic pair of legs to show for it. Missing out on the second pro card awarded at this event, the NPC Nationals look to be the logical choice in her efforts to reach the pro ranks.
And speaking of veteran competitors, everyone takes a back seat to this year's runner-up - Michelle Ivers-Brent. There just isn't nearly enough space to cover the accomplishments (and some might say disappointments) of this very special woman. First, it could be said that Brent is pleased with her placing at this contest. It is, after all, the highest she ever placed in the six visits she has made to this show. In fact, the last time Brent entered the USA as a heavyweight, she placed 14th in 1996. But it is the runner-up placements she has endured that would send most competitors over the psychological wall. Brent has finished second at no less than four North American Championships, second at the 1999 NPC Nationals as a MW, and the list goes one and on. Competing regularly since 1985, she most recently won the heavyweight class at the NPC Master Nationals, but a pro card didn't come with her victory. Knowing Michelle Ivers-Brent, she'll be back....
From Columbia, Mississippi, Angela Rayburn scored a third-place finish using her 5-8, 172-pound physique to cast some shadows on her fellow competitors. As the show's largest contestant, Rayburn used a level of balanced muscular development to top those who finished below her in the final tallies. A sixth-placer at the 2008 NPC USA, Rayburn has also finished third in both the 2007 and 2008 NPC Junior Nationals.
California's Julie Assa scored her second successive top-five NPC USA finish with a fourth-place spot this year. In 2008 she muscled her way to the overall NPC California crown before adding a fifth-place finish at the USA. Most recently Assa's daughter has begun competing the figure events, and there is always the possibility that both might just end up on a national stage together at the same contest in the future.
The final top-five heavyweight position went to another Phoenix, Arizona, competitor - Vicki Manfredi. A heavyweight winner at both the 2007 NPC Western Regional, and 2008 Arizona Open, the 5-6, 155-pound Manfredi made the most notable improvement of any female bodybuilding competitor at this year's event, jumping from a 12th-place finish at last year's USA to fifth this year.
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