ATHENS — It was a day for individual records and team awards on the first day of the American Powerlifting Committee National Championships in Athens on Saturday as the Gainesville-based Georgia IronDawgs won another Benchpress Team Championship and finished second in the combination Push/Pull (benchpress and deadlift) team race.
The Crossfit Killer Instinct squad from the Winder area won the 2015 Push/Pull National team title.
“Congrats to our people and to the Killer Instinct crew for winning national championships,” said IronDawg team captain. R. Garry Glenn of Oakwood. “We had a few of our folks drop off the push/pull team for various reasons, and it’s tough to win when we had only five lifters left to count against six for the other folks. That’s taking nothing away from Killer Instinct. They have some really strong people. It would have been interesting had we both had full teams, though. I am very proud of the IronDawgs and this meet continues to re-inforce what I have said for a long time. Some of the world’s strongest people live right in our own neighborhoods.”
The ‘Dawgs did set a number of Association National and World marks, and also boasted a Best Lifter. Tim “T” Moon of Gainesville had the heaviest benchpress of the day with his lift of 337.5 kilograms/744.05 pounds in the Equipped Master’s Men’s 50-54 year-old 140 kilo/308.64lbs. weight class. Moon weighed in at about 288. The lift, which gave him the bench-only Best Lifter and National Championship, comes less than a week after he set a World record in another association (WUAP/USA) in Illinois when he pressed close to 794 pounds. He narrowly missed an all-time, all-association 50+ age-group World record bench of 372.5kg./821.21lbs.
Moon also deadlifted a push/pull division world record 215 kilos/473.99lbs. to total 552.5/1,218.04 to win his class’s Equipped push/pull championship as well, and set National and World Push/Pull records, while also setting the International Powerlifting Organization World bench-only World record for his class.
Also setting a bench-only world record was Dana Tripp of Lawrenceville, who pressed 48 kilos/105.82 lbs. on a fourth lift to win the championship in the Master’s Women’s Raw 40-44, 52kilo/114.64lbs. class. Her husband, Russ, broke his own National record and set an American mark in taking the title in the MM Raw 45-49 75 kilo/165.35 lbs. division with his bench of 148/326.28.
Joey Murphy of Mt. Airy set the World standard in pressing 280/617.29 as he took first in the MM Equipped 45-49,110 kilo/242.51lbs. weight class. His protégée Mason Roberts, in his very first meet, lifted raw and won the 90 kilo/198.41 lbs. weight class for teens 16-17 with his National record lift of 108/238.1, and bumped the record to 110 kilos/242.51 pounds on a fourth lift.
The dean of the IronDawg lifters, Zack Layfield of Flowery Branch, who turns 74 next week, won the MM 70-74 year old 75 kilo Raw class with a lift of 85/187.39, then set the National and World Mark with his press of 89 k/196.21 lbs. on a 4th lift. (Fourth lifts are for records only and do not count in meet totals.)
The ‘Dawgs also got first places in bench-only from Gainesville’s George Bradley and Augusta’s Trey Hague. Bradley lifted in the MM 55-59, 67.5/148.81 Equipped class and pressed 102.5/225.97. Hague lifted despite injuring a pectoral muscle and benched 100 kilos/220.05 in the Men’s Raw Open 90 kilo class. He also pulled 220/485.01 to total 320kilos/705.47 lbs. and won his push/pull division as well.
Other push/pull National Champs for the IronDawgs were Winterville’s Andy Williamson, who benched 145/319.67 and deadlifted a World record 230/507.01 for a new World mark total of 375/826.73 in the Raw MM 50-54 year old 110 kilo weight class; and the 61-year old Glenn who went 8-for-8 in lifts and set new Raw push/pull World records for benchpress (147.5/325.18) and total 322.5kg./710.98lbs. His 4th deadlift of 175/385.81 established the American push/pull record in the MM Raw 60-64 year-old, 90 kilogram division. This was his first National push/pull title, although he has won championships at the National and World levels in bench-only.
“I don’t remember going 8-for-8 in anything,” Glenn said with a laugh. “The records were very nice. It was truly a ‘Praise Jesus!’ sort of day.”
Gainesville’s Clint Cochran was runner-up for the IronDawgs in the Raw Sub-master’s 100 kilo weight class in push/pull (B-115/253.53;D-197/434.31;T-687.84).
Other Best Lifters on the first day of the championships included Women’s Bench-Only winner April Mathis in the Raw 90+ with a World record press of 202.5 kilos/446.43 lbs.; Women’s Push/Pull champ Christin Baxter who totaled 222.5/490.52; and who also won bench-only and deadlift only National Championships with her lifts of 67.5/148.81 and 155/341.71 in winning the Raw Teen 16-17, 75 kilo weight class; and the deadlift-only winners for women and men: Luynh Ho-Bui in the Sub-master’s Raw 60 kilo/132.28 lbs. group; and Patrick Dicicco in the Men’s Raw Open 60k class with his pull of 175 kilos/385.81.
The APC Nationals continue at the Holiday Inn Express on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 10 AM each day, with fullpower competition –bench, squat and deadlift-in the various age and weight classes. The Gainesville-based 1 Percent Krew will have entries on both days as they will attempt to win the team full-power National Championship.
Athens will host the Global Powerlifting Alliance World Championships in October.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/6/319714/irondawgs-have-strong-showing-at-apc-natl-championships