I'm truly appreciative of your interest in my work! In my designs, I try to keep things as simple and clean as possible...I think it creates a bolder identity, along with keeping costs low for printing needs. I also believe a logo should be able to convert to one color, for things such as embroidery or vehicle decals. However, Entry #170 gives a metallic, beveled edge to the existing design, similar to your 1st ranked entry.
Please let me know if you'd like to see any other designs before the contest is over, it's been fun working on this project so far!