HSC 5 Write Up
THE THANKS
WOW! What a day!!! God is great, beer is good and people are crazy strong! I am so excited to have hosted and promoted this contest. It would not have been possible without a slew of people. So let me begin with my gratitude. First, God has blessed me in many ways so I must thank him for those blessings. One of those blessings is my very beautiful, intelligent, sociable and patient wife, Amanda, who without her my life would be a less fulfilled and a less focused one. Truth be known she handles much of the “behind - behind the scenes” things. She made sure the kids were taken care of, she supported me during the weeks of preparation, prepared our home for our guests and more. Then she turned around and was my Ace in the hole as a scribe / scorer for the show. I put her with the toughest group (yes those are the lady competitors!), and she aced it. She also made sure I was fed at the contest because she knows I forget to eat on these days.
Additional Thanks go to Willie Wessels for all of his work that he puts into USS and making the trip in. His presence is always welcome and appreciated. Thanks to the man of the hour, the man with the power, Mike Johnston! Always a good time with Mike and he did a heck of a job on the AV side of things. Not to mention the lessons that I learned from he and Willie inprep for USS Nats, June 26. Priceless.
Tyler miller and the whole Farce Barbell Family (Nate Barna, Justin Frazer, Brad Collins, Michele Walden, Jeff Pentzien, Chris Coffman as the head of toilet operations, Panda Ricigliano, Austin Plank, Justus Foster, and Jordan Echevaria who went above and beyond in the cleanup) for the use and support of the Force Barbell Facility. Additionally my friends and volunteers Bob Murray, Joshua Stubbs, Gil Matteucci, Jen Evanczyk, Nicole Jackson, Jess Rush and Jes Reeve for their exceptional help scribing, loading, judging and more. Your value is noticed by all and appreciated by none more than me.
Special Thanks to Chad Robison in the prep of this contest and helping to keep the pace going. He has been with me since the start in 2007! Jeff Lyttle worked harder than anyone on the stones and was wonderful at judging all day. Thanks to his wife Janae for letting me have him this day.
A Big thanks to Aaron Molin and The Core Fitness Family for delivering stones and logs. Over the past few years Aaron and I have been there to help each other. Aaron is without a doubt one of the largest advocates for the sport and an asset to anyone interested it the sport.
Another big Thanks to Chad Coy for his efforts in getting people signed up and expediting on the ladies’ lane and the stones and for the use of his 10” log. And Dan Mason for bringing his as well!
To EJ, thank you for coming in and all your help Friday and Saturday. You were in many places including helping Willie with check-in, moving equipment and setting up numerous other things while I was just trying to stay calm and breathe. Your Decals are wonderful.
To our sponsors: Force Barbell, Burritos and Beer, McDougle Chiropractic Methods, Gary James Productions, United States Strongman, Core Fitness and Spider Tack – THANK YOU!!! You are wonderful! Dr. Todd did his thing and had nearly every athlete on the table. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please reach out to him for your future corrective needs. He is a gem of a man.
I hope I am not forgetting anyone. If I am I apologize. Amanda is not here to remind me as I type this. Thanks again, Amanda. I Love you so much.
THE CONTEST
The Hoosier Strength Challenge V – Mega Balls began with a BANG! The Max Effort Overhead Log Press was the first event! We ran three lanes with the women on one lane with a 10” log. The men were on the other two lanes with 12” logs, split by opening weights. I know that Daniel Webster smashed a 370 lbs log for a new USS SHW record. I also know that Brittany Cornelius Had her way with a 200 lbs overhead effort for a new SHW women’s max record.
The next event was the 18” max Dead Lift. I can’t speak to too many records, but I know a Middle Weight Russell Mueller took 840 for a ride! The women reached weights up to 500 lbs! Both the Dead Lift and the Log took 70 minutes each to run 70 competitors through the lifts. That’s pretty quick by my standards! And that is all due to quality staff members.
The third Event was the Incline log. This was done in nearly 40 minutes running three lanes. Just enough time to update all the scores and get on to the next event!
The farmers hold is a classic event – at least it is from my standpoint since it was in the first contest I did 10 years ago! But it is a painful event that hurts everywhere and limits your ability to do much else after. There were times from 2 seconds to 2 minutes.
The last event was MEGABALLS!!!!! 10 stones! And we had a few people get very close to all 10. I think eight was the best by a few people. And I would have to give the stone award to HW Master Lee Woody who worked like a large piston loading 7 of the stones in less than 40 seconds. Big thanks to the platforms for making it through the abuse!
We had a few ties. Two of which were decided by count back and one of which was decided in a lift off! Russell Muller and Chris Berry in the Middle Weight Open Division took to a monster dumbbell! 120 lbs for max reps… They tied again! So they switched to their off hand and one rep won it! Congrats Russell!
The house was packed all day. After talking to Tyler we counted nearly 250 people in the place all day! I’m just glad that our fire marshal didn’t show up and shut us down. AS far as I know, this was the largest USS contest to date! What a great way to kick off 2015.
Now stay tuned… Nationals are right around the corner!
Oh yes, and one more thing: THANK YOU AMANDA FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT! These shows wouldn't happen without you.
Thanks,
John Albrecht
www.indianastrongman.com
Unites States Strongman, Inc. Indiana State Representative
