January is off to a great start and Tony Lupo is Lifter of the Month. He traveled down to Westlake, LA to help launch All-Round lifting in the Pelican State, took 2nd in the Bayou Beast Bash and set 5 records after the competition lifts were completed. He shows up live on the platform and has a jump on the competition for 2025 Road Warrior miles. Tony first appears in the record list starting in 2021 and has since accumulated 155 individual records in 138 different lifts and 9 team records. A true All-Rounder, he has set records in the Phumchaona Lift and the Carter Lift.
He was the 2023 Newcomer of the Year Runner Up and the inaugural recipient of the Al Myers Award presented at the 2024 Old Time Strongman World Postal Meet. Finally, he supports the USAWA as the Awards Director and the Records Director. Maintaining 19,000+ records is a daunting task that he has taken on without fanfare. Congratulations Tony!
Do you know a USAWA member who should be recognized as a future Lifter of the Month? Send nominations to the Secretary at bethskw@gmail.com
The inaugural Bayou Beast Bash turned out to be a huge success! Lifters came from as far away as Kentucky and Missouri to compete in-person, while three additional lifters competed remotely with their own officials on hand. More importantly than the lifting, it was nice to see the arms of the USAWA reaching into the deep south. In fact, I understand that I had the privilege to host the very first USAWA meet in Louisiana.
When people think of Southwest Louisiana, I would imagine things like alligators, swamps, and the Petro-chemical industry, steamy summers, and mild winters come to mind. The timing of the meet couldn’t have been better! Temperatures ranged from the 50’sF – to 60’sF which made for perfect lifting conditions. As a side note, if it would have been held two days later, we would have been in the midst of Winter Storm Enzo, record cold, record snow, and blizzard conditions. As of this writing, there is still snow and ice on the ground. The day of the meet two lifts were contested, the Hackenschmidt Floor Press and the Bavarian Deadlift. We had many age groups represented and the lifters showed up with purpose and intensity. The results are posted below.
After the meet was completed, we held a records day. Even though we were tired, we still had some energy left in the tank. Pending official approval, many age group / weight class records were set or exceeded by several of our lifters. Those results will be shared on the website once the officials review and record the results. In closing, I want to say that the USAWA proved to be what I thought it was, a group of people who enjoy camaraderie, lifting, and friendship as much as (if not more than) lifting, competing, and setting records.
As this was my very first lifting competition, I am very pleased that things went well and that I was able to make new friends in a sport I truly adore. Most importantly, I got to share this experience with my eleven-year-old son, Isaac. The memories we made will last a lifetime and have energized us to ramp-up training for the Nationals this coming summer. We look forward to participating again and want to give a big thanks to Clint Poore, Tony Lupo, Sanjiv Gupta, and my loving wife for bringing this to fruition.
DATE: 1/18/25 LOCATION: IRON SHARPENS IRON WL CLUB, WESTLAKE, LA / REMOTE MEET FOR 3 PARTICIPANTS IN COLORADO MEET DIRECTOR: JEFF BANKENS REFEREES / OFFICIALS: (IN-PERSON) CLINT POORE, TONY LUPO; (REMOTE) SANJIV GUPTA, JARROD FOBES ALL LIFTS RECORDED IN LBS. & ALL WEIGHT CLASSES & BODY WEIGHTS MEASURED IN KG ALL COMPETITORS ARE IN THE MEN’S DIVISION
Columns below are: location, name, age, bodyweight, weight class, hack floor press, bavarian deadlift, total, adjusted total with lynch and age factor, and placing.
NAME
AGE
BW
CLASS
HACK
BAV DL
TOTAL
ADJ
PLACING
IN-PERSON
ISAAC BANKENS
11
81.8KG
85KG
80
183
263
331.8
7TH
IN-PERSON
JEFF BANKENS
47
132.4KG
SHW
250
387
637
505.9
5TH
REMOTE
ELIJAH CONLEY
18
77.8KG
80KG
165
193
358
360.5
6TH
REMOTE
JARROD FOBES
47
99.2KG
1OOKG
266
319
585
537.5
3RD
REMOTE
SANJIV GUPTA
53
95.4KG
100KG
195
319
514
509.2
4TH
IN-PERSON
TONY LUPO
58
109.7KG
110KG
250
342
592
568.6
2ND
IN-PERSON
CLINT POORE
51
115.1KG
120KG
430
437
867
764.8
1ST
Jarrod Forbes also lifted 345 in the Bavarian Deadlift as a 4th attempt for record.
With the Q4 Postal meet in the books, it is time to crown the Men’s and Women’s postal champions. 17 women and 44 men competed throughout the year. 17 women is the largest women’s field the postal has ever had, beating the previous best of 12 entrants set in 2023. 44 women is the largest men’s field the postal has ever had, again a huge jump over the previous best of 36 entrants set in 2023. 61 entrants represented nearly half of the 2024 USAWA members.
Scoring was done the same way it was done last year with points awarded based on number of entrants. RJ Jackson and Sylvia Stockall tied with 33 points each. I don’t think we have a tiebreaker system yet, but with RJ taking the win in Q2 and Q3, versus Sylvia’s Q1 win, I am proposing RJ is the women’s postal champion. Abe Smith had 99 points, narrowly edging out Barry Bryan with 94 points. Congratulations to RJ and Abe. This is RJ’s 8th title and Abe’s 1st title.
Grand Slam winners include Stacy Todd, Allison Lupo, Janet Thompson, Abe Smith, Barry Bryan, Denny Habecker, Randy Smith, Jeff Wenzel, Travis Luther, Tony Lupo, Spencer Wenzel, Sanjiv Gupta, Eric Todd, Bill Clark
We had 28 men and 5 women compete in this quarter’s postal. Abe Smith led the men, and Stacy Todd led the women’s group. Thank you to all that lifted this year.
