USAWA

by Al Myers

The Presidential Cup is coming up fast (THIS WEEKEND)!  It is hosted by our USAWA President Denny Habecker at his gym, Habeckers Gym, in Lebanon, PA.

I have my plane ticket bought and ready to “join in”  this premier Record Day event in the USAWA.  The Presidential Cup is modeled after the IAWA Gold Cup, to allow each lifter to showcase their favorite and best lifts.  There will be a champion crowned.  As per rules of this event, the President is the one to make the decision on which Record Lift performed impresses him the most and that person will be awarded the Champion of the Presidential Cup.  Last year at the inaugural USAWA Presidential Cup the late Dale Friesz was awarded the Championship trophy.  Everyone was in agreement that Dale rightfully deserved this honor.  Dale will forever be known as the FIRST PERSON to be crowned the champion of the Presidential Cup.

It has been awhile since I have given an update on the Records Race and the members of the Century Club.  After doing a little figuring, I was surprised to see the number of record increases and the new members of the Century Club.  I should have recognized a few lifters before now!  The Century Club has now grown to 25 members (from 23 on last count).  I accurately predicted recent Hall of Famer Bob Geib would be joining the list after his latest resurgence in the USAWA, and  Ruth Jackson has came out of nowhere to join the Century Club!!  Ruth has had a stellar year in the USAWA – capped by winning Overall Best Female Lifter at the IAWA World Championships last October.  Congratulations to both of these two for this accomplishment. Since the list has now grown, I am going to break it down into two listings – one for women and one for the men.

WOMEN’S CENTURY CLUB
(as of August 7th, 2013)

RANK	LIFTER	CURRENT RECORDS	PREVIOUS COUNT	CHANGE
1	Noi Phumchona	263	265	– 2
2	Ruth Jackson	180	new	——
3	Mary McConnaughey	117	117	0

MEN’S CENTURY CLUB
(as of August 7th, 2013)

RANK	LIFTER	CURRENT RECORDS	PREVIOUS COUNT	CHANGE
1	Denny Habecker	480	447	+ 33
2	Art Montini	425	413	+ 12
3	Al Myers	411	396	+ 15
4	John McKean	291	292	– 1
5	Dennis Mitchell	266	260	+ 6
6	Frank Ciavattone	265	262	+ 3
7	Joe Garcia	238	243	– 5
8	Bob Hirsh	229	229	0
9	Chad Ullom	200	195	+ 5
10	Bill Clark	198	200	– 2
11	Howard Prechtel	174	175	– 1
12	Dale Friesz	160	162	– 2
13	Dean Ross	155	132	+ 23
14	Jim Malloy	153	153	0
15	Scott Schmidt	151	148	+ 3
16	John Monk	148	148	0
17	Ed Schock	138	142	– 4
18	Chris Waterman	137	137	0
19	Rudy Bletscher	131	126	– 5
20	Mike Murdock	107	104	+ 3
21	John Vernacchio	102	105	– 3
22	Bob Geib	102	new	———

As you can see there are no “major changes” at the top of the Century Club.  Denny has stretched his lead over Art to such a degree that I won’t even call it a records race anymore between them (I’m calling you out Art to kick it in gear a bit!!! haha).  Denny has added the more records to his count since the previous count (33 records) than anyone else.  He is on pace to break the 500 barrier by the end of this year! I also added a “change” number to this list.  That is how much the lifter’s record count has changed since the last count. You have to remember these are absolute counts, so you may think you have set more records than listed (which is probably true), but some of the records you previously owned might be getting broken in the process.  The only way to keep going forward is to add more records than you are losing – and that is only accomplished by meet participation!  I’ll again mention Art here – as I know Denny is getting great satisfaction out of breaking Art’s records in the 70/85 KG class, thus adding one for himself and taking one away from Art at the same time!!!

I’m getting to pride myself of making predictions on who the next Century Club members will be.  I have been pretty much “right one” with every one.  Now let me make my next predictions.  Pretty easy if you ask me – it will go to a Ciavattone, either Joe Sr., Joe Jr., or Jeff.  They are all “knocking on the door” of getting 100 USAWA records on the books.  Now don’t let me down guys on this!!!

I’m looking forward to celebrating the USAWA this weekend at the Presidential Cup.  See everyone there!