2023 NPC Empire Classic Bikini Championships (Spokane, WA - April 22, 2023) The great thing with earley season shows, whether Novices or Veterans, it's often the first look since they'd last stepped on stage (if ever} so with much anticipation we kicked off our Pacific Northwest coverage in a VERY impressive manner. The Empire Classic is no stranger to this. Starting off with our Bikini coverage, worthy of its own page! Overall Open Champion Lauren Wegner has great lines and the confidence and movements in her posing worthy of th next level. She's part of the Team Trophy winning 'Top Gun Fitness' group out of Spokane...they dominated the show in many categories. Back to Lauren, this was her second show, having taken the Overall Open title a couple weeks earlier at the Big Sky Championships in Montana! Also of note in Class 'C' were Mariah Montee and Alyson Burns, good stage presence from both. Look out for them at Emerald Cup... Of the other three Open classes, 'A' was noteworthy with Team Next Level's Bree Burton giving Lauren a run for her money at Overalls. She's been steadily improving the last couple of years, great structure for the category, always great to see her onstage! She'll be fine tuning things for Emerald Cup the following weekend. Runner-up in 'A' class was stunning Chassity Stanisich, teammate of Bree and very much improved from her debut a year ago (she placed 1st in her Novice Class). Following her in 3rd was Masters 35+ Overall winner Jessica Hayward. Other noteworthy competitors included Masters/Open athletes Vanessa Gray (Open 'D' 1st) and Melissa Migliuri (Open 'D' 3rd, but 1st in Masters 35+ 'B' Class ahead of Vanessa). Just goes to show how closely matched many of the classes were. Both represented TEAM CHROME who brought an excellent team of athletes to this event. A huge thanks to Promoters Ribic & of course Craig Productions, volunteers and the dedicated competitors who keep this sport growing. The Pacific Northwest is a special place when it comes to the NPC community with everybody pitching in to make each others' shows as successful as possible. It's a continued privilege to be able to cover and publicize these shows for decades now. We'll have more on the show here in general as time permits. You can also find more content on Instagram @david_twixpix. Thanks for NOT cropping watermarks if reposting photos on social media. Official results and further information can be found at Craig/Ribic Production events.. (Please notify me of any placing or name spelling errors, thanks.) (click for full size) Trophy Time Return to Contest Roundup