"I was just kind of doing it for a laugh to humour mum. She's usually right," he said.
And when Sam returned from Otago University for his summer break, his mum convinced him to enter the competition, too.
The boys surprised their mum when they came home from the event to tell them of their success.
"She was pretty stoked," Sam said.
Sam was presented with his prize package yesterday, which includes has won a contract with Monarch Models, $1000 worth of ExpoJ gear, a catwalk studios course, professional photo shoot, a one-on-one with a leading outdoor youth and life skills trainer, a trip to undertake the Tongariro Crossing, and a custom-designed web page with Photo-Album for personal or commercial purposes.
While he's excited to see where modelling takes him, Sam's committed to finishing his studies - he's just finished his first year at university studying physical education and tourism.
Second-place winner Dylan has previously modelled at the Infuse catwalk show at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.
Having just finished Year 12 at school, Dylan plans to complete high school next year before studying engineering at university.
But modelling is also a factor in his plans.
"I'm going to go up to Auckland for the catwalk studios course and hopefully take it from there. If I could get a modelling job that would be great."
Judy Alvos, designer of ExpoJ, said she decided to hold the competition to provide an opportunity for young men in Tauranga wanting to get into modelling.
The models wore ExpoJ clothing, and the top three all received clothing from the label in their prize packages.
