Despite the name of one of the U.S.’s most redoubtable regional bodybuilding shows, open class winners tend to come from all over the nation at the NPC Southern States, held annually at Fort Lauderdale’s War Memorial Auditorium. Not that South Floridians didn’t take their share of hardware. The day’s most competitive class by number (19) and closeness of quality, the lightheavyweights, went to 184-pound Omar Garcia, who also took the men’s overall title. Miami’s Yano Garcia, weighing in at 212 pounds, won the heavyweight class. Boca Raton’s Jay Dever took the welterweights at 165 pounds. And the middleweight women’s class was won by 53-year-old Teri Palakiko of Pompano Beach who weighed in at 124 1/2 pounds Saturday after weighing 128 pounds (light heavyweight mass) on Friday. Another class winner in Palakiko’s age range was Durham, North Carolina’s 53-year-old Mark Teasley, the men’s bantamweight champion. Had Palakiko been an extra half pound, she would’ve had to contend with 53-year-old, 137-pound Michelle Brent, long known for the impressive size, density and definition that gave the her light heavyweight class. Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Repollet, who calls himself “The Animal,” took the men’s lightweight class at 150 pounds. Chicago’s Bachir Aboujaoude, 175 pounds, won the middleweights.