Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

The onstage antics of Omega Man hopeful Jonathan Weaver knock pageant organizer Sarah Red and sorority sister Lindsay Lommori (far left) off their seats at a dress rehearsal in the Student Union Building ballroom at UNM. Thirteen men practiced their moves Wednesday for the all-male beauty pageant that starts at 7 p.m. Friday at the University of New Mexico.

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Shunning the traditional notion of swimwear, University of New Mexico senior Raymond Prior prepares to take the stage in a dress rehearsal for Omega Man. Contestants in the unconventional beauty pageant are encouraged to be inventive in each of the competition categories.

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The beauty pageant contestant strides coolly down the runway in the tiniest of red swimsuits, abs taut, biceps toned, legs trim . . . and hairy.

Welcome to Omega Man, a beauty pageant with body hair - and lots of it.

The contestants are guys, in fierce competition to be crowned Friday the best looking, nattiest, smartest, funniest and most talented dude on the University of New Mexico campus.

Judging from Wednesday night's dress rehearsal, the contestants are studly and clever indeed. And they've come to win.

"I want it," said Drew McDonald, a UNM baseball player, biology major and body behind the red swimsuit.

So does Christopher Veins, who's been working out. "I'm training, eating right," said Veins, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. "I've scoped out the competition, and it looks like there's some tough stuff here, but nothing I can't handle."

Tell that to R.J. James of the community organization Black Men in Motion. "I've been lifting weights," he said. "I want to win, and I'm not nervous. I'm cool with my physique."

Omega Man is a fund-raiser sponsored by UNM's Alpha Chi Omega sorority to benefit the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

It started modestly four years ago, just six wild and crazy guys from the fraternities. The audience loved it, and as word of the contest got around, the prospect of being crowned Omega Man became, to many, irresistible.

This year, 13 contestants represent six fraternities, the football and baseball teams, the Pre-Med Club, the Lobo Howlers, Black Men in Motion, the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center and Student Special Events.

The crowd has ballooned with the roster.

"Oh my gosh, last year we were packed. We ran out of seats, turned people away," said Sarah Red, president of Alpha Chi Omega. "It's become huge. We'll see what happens this year. If it gets any bigger, we'll have to take it to another place, like Popejoy (Hall) or Rodey (Theater)."

The pageant is no-nonsense.

To the tunes of a deejay, the guys first hit the runway dressed to represent their organizations, in uniforms or frat letters. They then don formal wear, strut their stuff and answer a tough - and revealing - question.

"We've asked them to cry, to show their emotional side; we've asked them to describe their perfect date or girlfriend; we've asked them to say why they should be Omega Man," Red said.

Next up is the highly anticipated swimsuit competition, followed by a talent show. They dance, they sing, they act. There's nothing they won't do.

The funnier, the better. "One guy got up one year and took his pants off, ironed them and put them back on," Red said. "One did a yo-yo routine. It's all over the place."

The contestants are judged by a panel of sorority presidents who pick a winner and two runners-up. There's an audience participation award to the contestant with the most, and loudest, fans. And one is named Best Chest in the West by popular vote based on blown-up photos of chests only.

Red said the contest isn't about being the best looking - "They're all good looking," she says - but about being creative, interesting and funny.

The guys were working those angles hard in rehearsals for the talent competition. James rapped, McDonald did a mean Michael Jackson, Veins and Dakota Moore brought the house down with a send-up of the walk-off scene in the movie "Zoolander."

Nathan Lynch of Phi Gamma Delta spun a plate ("Be sexy," counseled a fellow competitor), Jonathan Weaver of the Pre-Med Club did a riotous medley of dances from the twist to the moonwalk, and Hendrick Onderdonk of Student Special Events did dazzling skateboard tricks.

Michael Wendt of the Howlers said he was shy and timid and lacked confidence before getting into shape and entering Omega Man. He sang the country song "It's Your Love," probably not to Simon Cowell standards, but with heart.

When it came time for swimsuits - which most of the guys considered their best event - a lot of skin was shown and a lot of shakin' went on, in every style from Speedo to scuba.

So who's the guy to beat? Some say it's Weaver, who's been running an hour a day, at 6 a.m., seven days a week to get into shape. "He'll pull out all the stops," a competitor said.

Others say Veins could take it all on the strength of his buff body and "Zoolander" skit.

But the real winners are the women of Alpha Chi Omega, who sat back and marveled, with big smiles, at the show of machismo.

"They're hilarious," Red said.