USAWA

by Al Myers

The year is coming to an end and the opportunities to set any more USAWA records for the year is over.  Sure there is still the National Postal Meet, but the results won’t be reported for it until after the first of the year.  In my heart I knew this had to be a good year for the USAWA when it came to “broken records”.  We have had more events than normal and membership has swelled to a level that has not been seen in a long, long time.  So I did a little “counting” in the USAWA Record List and what I found was, VERY INTERESTING!

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to all members in the USAWA who have set new records within the past year.  You are now part of a RECORD BREAKING YEAR.  758 new USAWA records were established in the USAWA Record List.  This now stands in the NUMBER ONE spot of ALL-TIME!  Now this is a count of only the “records on the books” at this time – not the ones established per year as when old records are broken they disappear from the current list.  I also want to mention that in order to set a USAWA Record now you must do it in front of a certified official.  There were several “other marks” done this year at record days and postal meets which could have been records, but weren’t because they weren’t officially judged.  This pulled down the record count for the year, which in the past would have been higher when there were no guidelines on this and “ANY OLE RECORD” was put into the record list.   I’m proud that we have made this year the BEST EVER and have done it with TOUGHER RULES!!

TOP 10 TOTAL RECORD YEARS

RANK	YEAR	RECORDS
1	2011	758
2	2005	675
3	2002	654
4	2000	563
5	2010	553
6	2006	540
7	2003	518
8	1995	458
9	2004	448
10	1999	434

This brings us to the INDIVIDUAL record counts next.  With a year like this, you would think that the individual record counts would have been increased as well.  I have not reported on individual counts since last July, when I announced the two latest members of the CENTURY CLUB (lifters who hold over 100 USAWA Records) – Rudy Bletscher and Chad Ullom.  Well, the list is still the same lifters, just different count numbers.  There is STILL the 21 members in this exclusive CENTURY CLUB.  Our Prez Denny Habecker still leads the list and the RECORDS RACE with his 410 records, which gives him a pretty comfortable lead over Art Montini at 392 in second place.  The “top ten” is still the same lifters as it was the last time I did the count.

CENTURY CLUB

RANK	LIFTER	RECORDS
1	Denny Habecker	410
2	Art Montini	392
3	Al Myers	320
4	John McKean	258
5	Joe Garcia	239
6	Dennis Mitchell	229
7	Noi Phumchaona	214
8	Frank Ciavattone	212
9	Bill Clark	206
10	Bob Hirsh	201
11	Howard Prechtel	171
12	Dale Friesz	143
13	Jim Malloy	135
tie	Scott Schmidt	135
15	Ed Schock	134
16	John Monk	123
17	Mary McConnaughey	117
18	Chris Waterman	114
19	Rudy Bletscher	108
20	Chad Ullom	104
21	Joshua Monk	101

This lead me to thinking just who set the most records in 2011?  So I did that count as well and below is the TOP TEN record setters of 2011.  I was quite surprised to see Mike Murdock listed with 60 records!  That made me question his total count so I recounted it and he is still short of the CENTURY CLUB.  Mike has been competing in the USAWA for over 3 years now – so how can that be??  Well let me tell you why.  I have lifted in LOTS of meets/record days with Mike and he is constantly breaking his OWN RECORDS.  Mike – that doesn’t help you one bit in your overall count. You need to “go after” records you don’t already own buddy!!!

TOP 10 RECORD COUNT FOR 2011

RANK	LIFTER	RECORDS
1	Al Myers	83
2	Mike Murdock	60
3	Denny Habecker	40
4	Joe Garcia	31
5	Dean Ross	30
6	Rudy Bletscher	24
tie	LaVerne Myers	24
8	Art Montini	22
9	John McKean	20
10	Dennis Mitchell	19

I also want to mention that the USAWA Record List is now over 10,000 line items long!  That is A LOT OF RECORDS! We owe a huge thanks to the USAWA Records Director Joe Garcia for keeping this list up to date for us. Joe has maintained this list for over 20 years!