Welcome LaVerne to the Century Club!
by Al Myers
It’s always BIG NEWS when a USAWA lifter joins the Century Club. This is not for lifters who are over 100 years old – but for lifters who have over 100 USAWA records. It has been awhile since I have gave an update on this, but with the new addition of LaVerne Myers to the club it is time to give the updated counts. LaVerne has been lifting in the USAWA for a number of years now and has been very active this past year. He attended such prestigious competitions such as the Presidential Cup and the Gold Cup in England this year. He won the USAWA Grip Championships in February against a very stacked field of lifters. Plus LaVerne has really earned his records by just getting a few in each comp – not “cherry picking” 20 plus records in a record day. On the last Century Club report legendary USAWA lifter John Vernacchio dropped off the listing leaving the Club at 24 members. With the addition of LaVerne it is now back to 25 members.
Denny Habecker still leads the Men’s listing with 520 records – distancing himself from Art Montini. At one time a few years ago these two were “nip and tuck” in their record counts. Denny is the only USAWA lifter who has ever held over 500 USAWA records. Ruth Jackson is moving up the list in the Women’s listing, and I expect her to soon pass Noi (who has held the number one spot forever).
There are several USAWA lifters who are on the fringe of making the Century Club. Our current USAWA champ Randy Smith is within 10 of the list (and he has most ALL of his USAWA records from National Championships!!!!!). Our current women’s National Champ Susan Sees is very close as well. Plus it won’t be long before Joe Jr. and Joe Sr. Ciavattone join the club – they could be there in a couple of meets!
Thanks to a suggestion by Tim Songster – the CENTURY CLUB will now be part of the Record List Page. This will allow it to readily available for viewing (and not buried under many blogs) which will give lifters added motivation to compete in the USAWA!
WOMEN’S CENTURY CLUB
(as of August 8th, 2015)
RANK | LIFTER | CURRENT RECORDS | PREVIOUS COUNT | CHANGE |
1 | Noi Phumchona | 260 | 261 | -1 |
2 | Ruth Jackson | 236 | 213 | +23 |
3 | Mary McConnaughey | 130 | 117 | +13 |
MEN’S CENTURY CLUB
(as of August 8th, 2015)
RANK | LIFTER | CURRENT RECORDS | PREVIOUS COUNT | CHANGE |
1 | Denny Habecker | 520 | 501 | +19 |
2 | Art Montini | 458 | 445 | +13 |
3 | Al Myers | 436 | 421 | +15 |
4 | John McKean | 305 | 290 | +15 |
5 | Joe Garcia | 294 | 247 | +47 |
6 | Dennis Mitchell | 281 | 278 | +3 |
7 | Frank Ciavattone | 273 | 268 | +5 |
8 | Chad Ullom | 232 | 210 | +22 |
9 | Bob Hirsh | 229 | 229 | 0 |
10 | Dean Ross | 226 | 188 | +38 |
11 | Bill Clark | 214 | 207 | +7 |
12 | Howard Prechtel | 172 | 174 | -2 |
13 | Dale Friesz | 157 | 159 | -2 |
14 | Jim Malloy | 154 | 156 | -2 |
15 | Scott Schmidt | 152 | 150 | +2 |
16 | John Monk | 147 | 148 | -1 |
17 | Ed Schock | 138 | 138 | 0 |
18 | Chris Waterman | 137 | 137 | 0 |
19 | Rudy Bletscher | 125 | 126 | -1 |
20 | Bob Geib | 112 | 101 | +11 |
21 | Mike Murdock | 106 | 113 | -7 |
22 | LaVerne Myers | 102 | —– | —- |