Beauty and the Geeks

In her house near University City, her long, brown hair rolled up in curlers, her entire body painted with Pro Tan spray, Alexa DePasquale has two hours before showtime.

She removes her black sweats to reveal her new metallic-blue bikini, so her housemate, Kate Panarese, can roll sticky Bikini Bite on her skin to keep the suit in place.

Earlier that day, Panarese brushed on the final coat of the Pro Tan spray, the last of five coats she applied to her friend - a job that required DePasquale to strip naked each time.

NO FLEX DISCRIMINATION WITH THESE BODYBUILDERS

Such behavior has caused some people DePasquale knows to think she's "a nutcase," but she says it's necessary. "You get washed out under the [stage] lights," she says. "You have to be a darker color. It also helps to show your definition more."

Several times a week for the last two months, DePasquale has adhered to a grueling - and, for a college kid, unusual - schedule. She has spent two hours almost every day in the gym, zealously following a strict weightlifting and cardio regimen: Five days of lifting - shoulder presses, bench presses, leg presses, squats and lunges - plus low- and high-intensity cardio. She has eaten healthier than ever. She hasn't drunk alcohol, and she has made sure she has gotten eight hours of sleep each night. Her life, basically, has revolved around her attending classes, working out, sleeping and eating.

In a couple of hours, she will find out whether it has been worth it. That's when DePasquale, a senior at Penn, would be onstage in front of a screaming crowd of students at the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theatre, participating in what might be the Ivy League's least likely tradition: The Mr. and Ms. Penn Bodybuilding Contest.

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When assistant women's track coach Tony Tenisci started work at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-'80s, he had an idea. Tenisci - a bald, stout, athletic-looking Canadian - had worked at Washington State University, where he had also coached track and run a student bodybuilding competition.

He wasn't sure a similar contest would fit in at Penn. "It was an Ivy League school; I didn't really know if an idea like this could take place," he says.

Penn, at that time, didn't have a sophisticated fitness center. But as he worked out himself, lifting weights in the basement of a campus gym, Tenisci "saw a lot of talented kids here," he says. "Then, I just felt like I could do this ...  I saw there are fit kids here and thought I could encourage this kid and that kid."

The night of the first contest, in February 1994, a heavy ice storm hit Philadelphia. The weather, however, did little to deter spectators. The then-500-seat theater where the competition was held sold out. And 200 more people who wanted in had to be turned away. That's when Tenisci thought, "Maybe I have something!"

Today, about 20 to 30 students compete in each show: some to improve their fitness, others because they're hard-core competitive athletes, and still others who want to be pro bodybuilders.

Tenisci works with the students for two months before the event, giving them a grueling weightlifting regime, discussing nutrition and proper dieting, practicing the bodybuilding poses they need to perform, and mostly, encouraging them to participate in what many come to consider a unique journey.

For some participants, like DePasquale, the goal is just to be in the show, part of her last year at Penn, and to get her body more fit. "It really is about fun and friends," she said.

For others, like Jesse Carlin, the goal is to win. A doctoral student in pharmacology of neuroscience, Carlin already has won the Ms. Penn title three times - twice as a Penn undergrad, and once as a Ph.D. student. Last year, she won in the short-class women's division, but got toppled for the overall Ms. Penn title by Cydney Gillon, a freshman who had already turned pro bodybuilder. "It always is tough to lose," said Carlin, 25, a pretty and petite blonde. "It was good for me to lose because I'll just work harder this year."

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It's Sept. 14 at the Pottruck gym on Penn's campus, and students are filing into a fourth-floor studio for the first meeting of the bodybuilding competition.

Tenisci, 62, enthusiastically greets everyone. "I can tell you're really into this," he tells one male student. "Once you do this, whenever you look at food, you'll never look at it the same way again."

Thirteen students attend the session. On competition night, 23 students - 11 of them women - will take the stage. "The audience and the competitors are like nothing you can imagine," Tenisci says at the first meeting, preparing them for the show. "It's not about the outside world; it's not about professionals. It's about us. This is your Warhol 15 minutes of fame. When you're up there, you get a lot of respect from your peers. They're looking at you, thinking 'Damn, I wish I could be there.' "

Most of the students on this first night look like regular college kids: normal, in other words. There are no bulging muscles ripping out of clothes.

The coach tells them they will undergo a journey, a journey that will include working out, of course. But working out will not be enough. They will also have to eat properly to give them the fuel they need to be at their best for the competition. Then, "you can really see what God gave you," he says.

Tenisci focuses a lot of his talks with the students on eating right. "No deep-fry, limit your dairy, get away from the sweets," he says. He tells them they can even get healthy meals at the ubiquitous food trucks around campus by ordering egg-white sandwiches or steamed chicken and white rice. He tells them to buy cartons of egg whites from the store. And he tells them to drink water - and to change from drinking tap to distilled water two weeks before the contest to help them look even more ripped.

At a second meeting, on Sept. 27, Tenisci takes out a Styrofoam takeout box from an Asian food truck filled with steamed broccoli, chicken and plain white rice. "In there is my protein; that's all I need," he said. "No T.G.I. Friday's. Not the mega-meals." He then shows them a shopping bag full of other foods they can easily buy: Birds Eye Steamfresh veggies; large cans of white chicken and tuna; frozen white roughy and organic brown rice from Trader Joe's. He takes out a package of fresh mushrooms and a bag of salad-ready lettuce, holds up the tuna can, and tells the students to add carrots, celery and the tuna to make a salad. With a meal like this, "I'm living a dream," he says.

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