Time to Revisit the Records Race
by Al Myers
It was exactly 1 year ago that I instigated the USAWA Records Race. Last year at this time it was a “nip and tuck” battle between our “Prez” Denny Habecker and the “Man of Steel” Art Montini. Denny had the slight lead of 341 records to Art’s 337 records. While not much has changed one year later, except the two of them have widened their margin from the rest of the pack. As of now (National records included) Denny still has the slightest of leads over Art 365 to 358. Last December Denny had “stretched” his lead over Art by 11, but the Man of Steel at an age of 82 is relentless as he is still taking the records down at a rapid pace, as demonstrated by his 4 USAWA records he set last weekend at the National Championships. But Denny is a born leader and not only leads our organization but the record list as well, and has added over 20 USAWA records himself this past year.
The are still 20 members in the “Century Club” – a designation I gave to those lifters that hold over 100 USAWA records. I last ran this listing last December, and no one new has been added to this list. However, there has been some changes in how the list “sorts out”. I want to point out that this is CURRENT RECORDS held. If you haven’t been competing there is only one direction you will go, and that is down. This past weekend’s lifting put more numbers in the Record List (which before long will top 10, 000 records). It is interesting to note that the 20 lifters in the list below hold 40% of the records in the USAWA Records List. At the 2010 National Championships 52 new USAWA records were set. For a complete listing of the records set at Nationals click on this – 2010NationalMeetRecords.
Current Records Ranking in the USAWA
1. 365 Denny Habecker
2. 358 Art Montini
3. 227 Al Myers
4. 226 John McKean
5. 214 Bill Clark
5. 214 Noi Phumchona
7. 213 Dennis Mitchell
8. 212 Frank Ciavattone
9. 204 Joe Garcia
10. 201 Bob Hirsh
11. 171 Howard Prechtel
12. 142 Dale Friesz
13. 137 Jim Malloy
14. 134 Ed Schock
15. 123 John Monk
16. 118 Mary McConnaughey
17. 115 Scott Schmidt
18. 114 Chris Waterman
19. 110 Joshua Monk
20. 105 John Vernacchio