A Summary of Power Corps Challenge 2009

Note: Results will be posted on the NAS site shortly.
A hot day in June, heavy weights on a viking press and deadlift for repetitions, a farmer's hold, an 80-foot yoke walk, and an endurance medley was a good way to test the grit of any strongman competitor. And 19 competitors with grit showed up for the test.

Here are some of the highlights from my perspective. This is by no means exhaustive.


The women's division started the day off and was great to watch with first-timer Victoria Hornbeck leading the way all day, looking like a veteran at the sport. Never-say-die Uni Muniz took second, with PR's in every event.

Great show by the five teens who took place, most of them new to the sport. Robert Fife won the day with a very dominant showing, setting the bar high with solid records in the deadlift and yoke, both in the 20-rep/20-second range. Bo Qin took 2nd place in his very first competition and Lewis Heater rounded out the placing for a well-earned third - lots of brute strength from both of these guys as well with 17 reps in the viking to share the record. We'll see all three of them again for sure.

A novice division was added to encourage local strong guys to try their hand at the sport. Patrick Regan showed without a doubt in every event that he could easily keep up in the heavyweight open had he signed up for it instead. Jason Sauber and Thomas Schwartz pushed, pulled, carried, and flipped their way to second and third.

In the men's open classes,

Relative newcomer to the sport Sean Kline brought the thunder in the 200's with an impressive display on the yoke, viking, and medley. Look to see him make a splash in future meets.

Pure head-to-head competition made for an exciting day in the "middleweights" with one heck of a match-up between Alex Camacho and Karia Coleman in the 231's neck-and-neck in each event, coming down to a few seconds and single reps, while in the 265's Chris Alitz and Ray Makeijus battled back-and-forth, finally settling the score with Ray coming out in first at the end of the day on the tie-breaking last event with only seconds to spare.

Heavyweights showed some great action as well, with a three-way tie on the deadlift, and the heaviest yoke carry of the day, where the record was broken three times, starting with P.J. Hauser who floated it to the finish line without a single stumble. Chris 'Herm' Hartman came out on top for his first meet, with longtime friend and competitor Matt Barron taking second, and Dennis Craddock bringing home the third - a very respectable show of strength all around.

Twelve men stayed to toss the sandbags over a crossbar in the bonus event. Overall heavyweight and lightweight each received a $300 gift certificate to Foolish Heart Tattoo Parlor. This was open to all competitors and spectators. Yours-truly participated in the event as the strongman 'pace-car' and was quickly crushed by everyone else, living up to the screen name "Utter Weakling." Alex Camacho took home the lightweight prize, while 'ringer' Patrick Regan astonished everyone by snatching the gift of ink from the behemoths like Barron, Herm, and Craddock in the final run of the day. Great performance and congratulations to both of them - don't spend it all in one place....or wait - I guess you have to, don't you?

A big thanks goes to Illinois chairman Tony Soucie for stopping by and lending a hand in the background in any necessary capacity - running the
stopwatch, moving and loading weights (also picking up and carrying back the Husafel-like stone no less than five times - that alone was a competition's worth of work). This guy never quits and is one heck of an active chairman. This meet was unique for me since it was the first I've ever had the pleasure of participating in both judging and managing. Also, I've never until now attended one to have a contested teen, novice, AND women's division at the same time. Moreover I would like to thank all the competitors for coming out to bring their solid performances on this VERY hot afternoon in Montgomery. It means a lot to us at Jakked to see you guys (and girls) come out to "tear it up" on our turf.

We hope to see you all again in the not-so-distant future.

DM

Good day today. I'm sure Dan will be posting an update here soon.
Dan, Jennifer, Byron and the crew from Jakked Hardcore did a wonderful job. There was a lot of hardwork behind the endeavor. Once they send me the results I'll post them on our web site.

I do believe the yoke and Viking Press had several records posted or broken.

Tony

B~Rad, Jennifer is a multi-ply based powerlifter, first and foremost. THere's APF World's in August and a UPA meet in November. Her goals are to hit 1000 before the year is up. I doubt women's nationals is in the cards.

By the way, I was mistaken about the sandbag event's prize - there's a $150 gift certificate to a tattoo parlor for both the light and heavyweight winners (one of the sponsors who is a tattoo artist is donating that). I thought it was a $45 cash prize (the value of one of the sandbags). Of course, if you, like myself, aren't into getting tattoos, have no fear - somebody there will most likely happily buy it off you there and you can both get a deal.

I will be there tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing Jakked, havent been there before. Might have to try my hand at the sandbag challenge.

Good luck to everyone competing