OAKWOOD, Ga. — Northeast Georgia was well represented as the 2024 Georgia State Summer Games returned to RISE Athletic Club in Oakwood for the second straight year. Two local high schoolers had outstanding meets, and a veteran lifter reached a personal goal.
Cherokee Bluff football and lacrosse player 14-year-old Grant McElroy of Hoschton had an outstanding total in the full-power category for 14-and-under male lifters, with 1,235 pounds, second only to Braselton’s Jake Tupper for the overall total lifted. At a bodyweight of 185.8, McElroy squatted 465, bench-pressed 315, and deadlifted 455 to take the gold medal in the 14-and-under, 198-pound class.
Tupper's total was the heaviest at 1,270 pounds ( S-470, BP-305, DL-495), and McElroy's bench press was the heaviest at 315 pounds.
Habersham Central’s Andrew Murphy of Mt. Airy took gold in the Male 15-18, 181-pound weight category in Push/Pull (Bench/Deadlift). At just under 167 pounds, the 15-year-old Murphy bench--pressed 225 and deadlifted 365 to total 590 pounds. He, too, was granted a fourth lift on the deadlift and pulled 390 pounds. Fourth lifts are for record purposes only and do not count towards the meet total.
The Georgia IronDawgs were represented by Oakwood’s R. Garry Glenn, who won the Master’s Men’s 220-pound, 70-74-year-old bench-only class with a final press of 300 pounds at a bodyweight of 202. Glenn also served as Meet Director and announcer.
“We made the decision to go touch-and-go on the bench to help the competitors- me included,” Glenn said. “I’m glad the judges gave me three-thumbs-up. It was another PTL (Praise the Lord) moment to be able to bench 300 pounds at the age of 70, which was a bucket-list goal of mine.”
Glenn’s bench was the third best of the day, regardless of age or weight class.
“Both Grant and Andrew did awesomely well for anybody, much less young men their age,” Glenn continued. “They’ve got a real future in this sport if they keep it up.”
Another meet highlight was Mt. Airy’s Jordan Bryson’s 505-pound deadlift in winning the full-power Men’s Open 181-pound full-power class. At a bodyweight of 176.4, Bryson totaled 1,150 pounds to take gold (S-375, B-270).
Other full-power gold medalists and their totals included the husband-wife duo of Deanna Orr and Tom Wohlbach of Alpharetta (MW, 70-74, 170 pounds, and MM 60-64, 535); Demorest’s John Weidner, (Open Male 242, 1,015); and Clarkesville’s Isaac Worley (Open Men’s 198, 1,040).
All lifters competed “raw;” without special bench-press shirts or squat suits.
“We’d like to thank the folks at the Georgia Games, as well as Lloyd Herford and the people at RISE for hosting,” Glenn added. “Lloyd is a past Georgia Games champ and served as a judge, spotter, and loader today. Our other judges-also past Georgia Games champs- helped in that as well: Joey Murphy, a multi-time National and World Champion, as well as William Howington, a veteran official and a NWHOF/Georgia Chapter inductee.”
Glenn—a multi-time national and world champion—is a former Johnson High assistant football and head wrestling coach and has served as a South Hall Middle School assistant wrestling coach for the last two seasons. He is a 1972 Honor graduate of Jefferson High and a former sportswriter for the Jackson Herald. He is a 1976 Honor Graduate of UGA (Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Kappa Tau Alpha) and was inducted into the Georgia Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022.
