USAWA

Last weekend was the 5th Annual Bench Press Heptathlon and Record Day. The meet also features three special events. Eight lifters participated from two different gyms, six from Clark’s Gym and two from High Country Vigour. One of the lifts was a standard feet on the ground bench press for which, of course, we do not keep records. The other events were Alternate Grip, Reverse Grip, and Close Grip Bench Press as well as the Feet in the Air and One Arm Left and Right Bench Presses. The optional single events were the Reg Park Bench Press, and everyone’s favorite, the Roman Chair Bench Press, and finally the Bench Press “Rampage”.

On the Women’s side, two familiar combatants went head-to-head. Janet Thompson won the event, setting three records, including an impressive 65 lb Reverse Grip Press. She totaled 325 lb total and set three new records along the way. Allison Lupo debuted in the 60 year old age category totaling 340 lbs, getting the most raw weight, and setting four new records of her own. That included a Reverse Grip Press – a lift matching Janet’s 65 lb lift. In the special event lifts, Janet Thompson braved the Reg Park Bench Press to grab the 1st place certificate. Allison Lupo followed up with the 1st place certificate in the Rampage throwing up 15 lb a total of 53 times in one minute, a grand total of 795 lb. It was enough to edge Janet’s 10 lb at 64 (64!) reps which made it a great competition!

On the Men’s side, mighty Jeff Wenzel ran away with his second straight title finishing nearly 400 lb in raw weight ahead of the competition, translating to 335 age and weight adjusted points. Jeff still set three new records – impressive considering his competition was last year’s version of himself. After Jeff, the competition was stiff and a mere 41 Lynch points separated 2nd place from 4th place (3.3%). In that cluster, it was High Country Vigour’s Jarrod Fobes who came out ahead of Clark’s Gym lifter Tony Lupo. Jarrod pushed up 35 lb more weight and hung on by just over six Lynch points for 2nd. Both lifters improved by quite a bit over last year (17% and 26% by Jarrod and Tony, respectively), shaking off injuries which held them back a year ago. Jarrod set two new records including a Reverse Grip Bench Press that was tied for his best lift. Tony set records in all six record eligible lifts. The young Riley Wenzel finished a close 4th, with three new records to his credit. In spite of a slight off day, Riley was nearly 100 lb better than last year, an improvement of just over 8%. David DeForest put in a strong showing, a day that included both One Arm Bench Press records. Sanjiv Gupta was not to be left out of the strong improvement category, lifting nearly 100 lb (13%) more than last year. This included four new records to his name!

The Men’s special event results were very competitive as Jeff Wenzel performed a 251 lb Roman Chair Bench press, the best ever! Tony Lupo then edged Riley Wenzel for 2nd by two points in one of our favorite lifts! Moving on to the Reg Park event, the father-son team, Jeff and Riley Wenzel finished 1st and 2nd, respectively, while Tony Lupo edged teammate David DeForest by two points for 3rd place. In the Rampage, Riley Wenzel pulled off one of the most amazing feats of the day, a 5200 lb total (65 lb for 80 reps) finishing well ahead of the pack for 1st place. Second and third were only eight Lynch points apart, David DeForest getting 2nd (55 lbs for 58 reps), and Jarrod Fobes in 3rd (95 lb for 40 reps). All the great lifting and record day efforts were enough to have us looking forward to next year!

** One more competitor was added after I found their results in an e-mail account I very rarely use.