Author Archives: Tony Lupo

Century Club Updated

The Record sheets will be updated when the quarterlies are ready. This will include the OTSMs in Colorado and Missouri as well as the One Ton Challenge and Two Fisted Challenge. All these records are added in. The Century Club lists are updated! Welcome and Congratulations to Jessica Hopps and Wade Marchand – they are now in the Century Club. There were some big movers on the women’s side. Lisa Gore added 65 new records as she moved into a new age class. She moves up to #2 all time among female lifters. On the men’s side Jeff Wenzel added 48 new standards to move up to 13th all-time. Sanjiv Gupta moved up 16 places with a big quarter and Frank Ciavattone moves into 4th all time. Since the Untied States is turning 250 this year, the record lists have a new feature. All those with more than 250 records are bolded and belong to the new USAWA250 Club level. On the women’s side – the top three are bolded. On the men’s side, it’s the top 15. Also, I have a new team record table. For those who may have been a member of more than one team, there is the top 10 individual team record holders table now. Enjoy! If there is any stat or table that you as a lifter would like to see, let me know.

2025 Two-Fisted Challenge II – Results and Record Day

The 2nd Two Fisted Challenge, held 27 – 28 September, featured a lot of big lifts, new champions, new contestants, and a lot of skinned fingers! This year we had entries from three gyms across the USAWA. On the Women’s side, Janet Thompson entered the fray and won the title for 2025. Mary McConnaughey finished third in her first year, and lifted the most in raw weight. Lisa Gore finished second while lifting about 25% more than last year. Only Allison Lupo had a larger improvement – up 50% from a year ago.

On the men’s side, Jeff Wenzel ran away from the field tallying nearly a ton after putting up over a ton in the One Ton Meet. Not only that, but he improved about 35% over last year. Abe Smith was the runner-up in raw weight, while Tony Lupo and Riley Wenzel battled for third place. The former lifted more in raw totals but the latter took third after Lynch and Age were considered. Riley was quite impressive in his first entry into this meet, breaking or establishing 11 records in 14 events. Abe and Tony were both up about 15% over last year as well. Three entered from high Country Vigour in 2025, and this year Jarrod Fobes got to compete injury free. He was strong enough to place 5th overall in raw weight, and not much separated him from 3rd. Sanjiv Gupta returned to the mix, and Elijah Conley got a few lifts in for his first competition, hitting age-weight records in all four events attempted. Sanjiv hit age-weight marks in 12 of 14 lifts which was 2nd on the men’s side. Only Logan Wenzel did better establishing all 14 age-weight records and finishing 5th overall at only age 10. We were also glad to have Jerome Licini enter the mix from Habecker’s Gym in Lebanon Valle, PA. He made a good strong entrance into the field, and given this is his rookie year, expect to see big gains next year.

Jeff Wenzel, Sanjiv Gupta, and Lisa Gore put up some strong numbers in their record day lifts. Check it out in the results posted here.

2025 Two Fisted Challenge II ResultsDownload

2025 One Ton Challenge Results

The first One Ton Challenge Meet was the brain child of Jeff Wenzel. These lifts were meant to be challenging, while at the same time allow lifters to post some big numbers. Preferably, the lifts are those named after someone. The meet was a success drawing in 20 lifters from five different gyms and two nations. On the women’s side, we had seven lifters, five in the competition and two for records. Allison Lupo was thrilled to win her first outright title in a contested meet. She had a great day as she rolled up a total of 925 lb, and was the only female over 1000 points with age and weight. She wasn’t the only female lifter with big numbers as Mary McConnaughey posted 900 lbs in four events and Lisa Gore lifted 855 lb on a bum knee to take 3rd place. Janet Thompson was the second place finisher.

On the men’s side we actually had two lifters make it to one ton! Both Jeff Wenzel (2357 lb) and Abe Smith (2335 lb) went the extra mile posting totals of more than one Metric Ton (2205 lb). Only 22 lb separated the two, or a hair under 1%! After age and weight were accounted for, Abe Smith came out on top. The battle for 3rd was also interesting as Travis Luther lifted 1910 lb, while Riley Wenzel came in at 1810 lb. For both that is more than 90% of a ton! But once age and weight were accounted for, they literally flipped spots. Tony Lupo gave it a good try getting just over 82% of a ton.

Some big individual lifts were made as Lisa Gore (300 lb People’s DL), Allison Lupo (275 lb People’s DL), and Mary McConnaughey (275 lb People’s DL) all set records in this event. Janet Thompson set a new standard with 200 lb in the Kennedy DL, and Alix McGregor at 79 years young did an Anderson Squat of 120 lb. On the Men’s side perhaps the most impressive lifts were from Jeff Wenzel (700 lb Anderson Squat), Abe Smith (600 lb Anderson Squat), with Travis Luther posting a 575 lb Kennedy DL, and Riley Wenzel was not too far behind at 495 lb. Sanjiv Gupta also posted a record 380 lb in the Kennedy, and relative newcomer Jerome Licini hoisted 360 lb in the same lift. Everett Todd at the tender age of 12, also got a big number on the Kennedy at 265 lb. Eric Todd lifted an impressive 300 lb in the Anderson Press. Tony Lupo’s big lift was 475 in the People’s DL.

2025 One Ton Challenge ResultsDownload

2025 IAWA Andy Goddard Memorial Postal Results

The final results with records noted are available for the 2025 IAWA Andy Goddard Memorial World Postal. Thanks to Chris Bass and Paul Barette for preparing these. The USAWA fared quite well thanks to the four clubs that participated. The four were Iron Throne, High Country Vigour, Frank’s Barbell Club, and Clark’s Gym. All in all the USAWA had by my count 25 new world records, three teams (Clark’s 1, Clark’s 2, and Franks Barbell Club) were part of the top 10 teams, and Frank’s Barbell Club and Clark’s Gym finished 5th and 2nd, respectively. The USAWA also claimed four of the 10 best lifters by age class (Dan Jones 40+, Jeff Wenzel 50+, Tony Lupo 55+, and Dave Deforest 65+) as well as eight (Jeff Wenzel, Dave DeForest, Riley Wenzel, Travis Luther, Tony Lupo, Dan Jones, Wade Marchand, and Kim VanWagner) of the top 20 individual lifters! Well done USAWA!

2025 IAWA Andy Goddard with RecordsDownload

2025 Award Winners: Our Third Hall of Fame Inductee

Our third USAWA Hall of Fame inductee for 2025 is none other than Randy Smith. Randy is a member of Clark’s Gym and lives in the upper peninsula of Michigan (a “Yooper” as residents are affectionately known). Randy has been a constant presence in the USAWA for more than 20 years! Living where he does, there are not many USAWA referees around him. He is a certified referee (since 2010) himself. But that does not stop Randy from doing many remote USAWA events and submitting his lifts anyway. And he is a force to be reckoned with piling up about 150 records over the years in the events to which he can travel. Usually, those events are the USAWA Nationals (17 of the last 22 years!) and IAWA World Championships when they are held in the USA. And when he visits, he’s going to be a top 10 guy, you can count on it. He is also a USAWA courage award winner. Randy is a great presence when he visits. Generally he is laid back person, very friendly, and a fount of knowledge when it comes to weightlifting topics. He supports his fellow lifters and is willing to jump in and referee. He’ll help you with technique and performance. He has a lot of great ideas which he shared as a valuable member of the USAWA advisory board these past few years. He is able to analyze an issue from many angles. And if you talk to Randy, you’ll find out that he’s a retired physician who is knowledgeable on a whole range of topics! There is more to Randy than weightlifting, he is an officer in a shooting sports club. He enjoys nature and spends time hiking. Congratulations to Randy Smith as our third 2025 USAWA Hall of Fame Inductee!   

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