By Eric Todd
Big thanks goes out again to our records director, Scottish Johnny Strangeway. The updated record lists are now posted. They are updated through the postal championship. Please look them over to be sure your records have been accurately recorded. If you did it after the Postal Championships, it will not be reflected in this record list.
Dave DeForest executes a Hip lift at last year’s championship event
By Eric Todd
Meet Announcement
Well, I did what I could to find a venue for this out East to no avail. So, the Heavy Lift Championship will again be held at ET’s house of iron and stone in Turney, Missouri. If someone else wants to host next year, please reach out to me. This will be the fourth time we have hosted this event. We have had a pretty good turnout the other times we have hosted, and hope to have a good turnout this year. I know the turnaround for the meet has not been a tremendous amount of time, but we did the fall meet last year just to be sure we got the meet in for 2021 with the covid shutdown, but want to get it back into the rotation in May.
Joe Ciavattone Jr. in action with the Hand and Thigh at a past USWA Heavy Lift Champinships.
We will provide bottled water and lunch. The outhouse got turned over in a windstorm, but we will have it upright by meet time. We have plenty of iron for some big lifting. If you have special needs in the way of a neck harness or hip belt, please bring your own. Otherwise, you can use mine. I expect some veterans to come out and vie for the title, and we would love to have some newcomers that we can get interested in the heavy lifts. You will deal in weight you have never lifted before. No pressure, but I have my sites on a couple young lifters from Clark’s gym to come make their mark on this championship. So, people make sure your memberships are in order and get your entries into this meet. Should be a blast!
Date: May 7, 2022
Place: ET’s House of Iron and Stone
Events: Neck Lift, Hand and Thigh, Hip Lift
Awards: Yes
Current USAWA membership for the 2022 year is required of all participants. This will be a drug tested event.
By Al Myers
2022 USAWA GRIP CHAMPIONSHIPS
Group picture from the 2022 USAWA Grip Championships
The Dino Gym hosted the USAWA Grip Championships for the 11th time this past weekend. Usually this championship event gets a good turnout, but this year only three lifters took part. However it was a heated contest as all participants have been past overall champions of the Grip Championships.
LaVerne Myers took the overall over fellow Dino Gym members Chad Ulllom and myself. This makes LaVerne a FIVE TIME overall winner of the Grip Championships making him the most overall winner of all past Grip Championships.
I really want to thank Dave Glasgow for coming to the Dino Gym to officiate, which allowed me to compete in the meet.
Meet Results:
USAWA Grip Championships
February 19th, 2022
Dino Gym
Holland, KS
Meet Director: LaVerne Myers
Meet Scorekeeper: Al Myers
Official (1-official system used): Dave Glasgow
Lifts: Dumbbell Walk, Deadlift – 2 Inch Dumbbells, Deadlift – No Thumbs One Arm, Deadlift – Index Fingers
MENS DIVISION
| Lifter | Age | BWT | Walk | Inch | DLNT | Index | TOT | PTS |
| LaVerne Myers | 77 | 218 | 113* | 240* | 171L* | 143* | 667 | 851.7 |
| Al Myers | 55 | 230 | 113* | 260* | 204R* | 198* | 775 | 744.8 |
| Chad Ullom | 50 | 233 | 93* | 260* | 193R* | 220* | 766 | 699.5 |
Notes: BWT is bodyweight in pounds. All lifts recorded in pounds. R and L designate right and left arms. TOT is total pounds lifted. PTS are overall adjusted points corrected for age and bodyweight. National records within the meet are denoted with an asterisk (*).
RECORD DAY LIFTS
Officials (3-official system used): LaVerne Myers, Al Myers, Chad Ullom
LaVerne Myers – Age 77 years, BWT 222 pounds
Finger Lift – Left Little: 58#
Finger Lift – Right Little: 58#
Finger Lift – Left Thumb: 58#
Finger Lift – Right Thumb: 58#
Deadlift – Fulton Bar, Left Arm: 160#
Al Myers – Age 55 years, BWT 229 pounds
Finger Lift – Right Little: 88#
Finger Lift – Right Ring: 118#
Finger Lift – Right Index: 128#
Finger Lift – Right Middle: 143#
Finger Lift – Right Thumb: 83#
Chad Ullom – Age 50 years, BWT 235 pounds
Deadlift – Stiff Legged: 364#
Deadlift – Ciavattone Grip: 402#
Finger Lift – Left Ring: 118#
Finger Lift – Left Index: 118#
By Eric Todd
Travis Luther with 1,800 in the harness lift enroute to 2,100. Photo by Gene Baumann
The nod for the first lifter of the month in 2022 goes to Clark’s gym member, Travis Luther, for winning this year’s installment of the Zercher Strength Classic. He did so in classic style, by coming from behind to defeat Nick Frieders (2021’s November lifter of the month) by dominating the chain lifts. Travis narrowly beat Chad Ullom for lifter of the month honors. Chad was the winner of the Dino Gym Challenge. Nick’s monstrous chain lifts is what put him over the top. At a bodyweight of 158, Nick put up a 1685 hip lift and a 2100 harness lift. To put that hip lift in perspective, for my first 10 years of all-round, my best hip lift was 1675, and those were done at a bodyweight of between 240-275. That is some fantastic chain lifting for seemingly a relative newcomer to all-round lifting and the chain lifts. It is a well-deserved honor, and I look to see where Travis goes in the future in these lifts. Congratulations, Travis Luther!
By Al Myers
The Year in Review is in memory of the great all rounder Wilbur Miller.
I have finished the 2020-2021 Year in Review and it is available for download on the website. The Year in Review contains all the website information (blogs, meet results, announcements, etc) from the previous year. Usually I do one review for each year, but due to our “Covid Year” I have combined the review into 2 years this time. I might be ole fashioned but I still like to preserve history in paper format!