The Missouri USAPL presents... Coverage of the 2001 Mens Nationals, as reported by Patrick Anderson! Patrick Anderson has been a hardcore powerlifter for what seems like forever. Along with being a great lifter, Pat serves the USAPL as an Atlhete's Rep. USAPLNationals thanks Patrick Anderson for his in depth coverage of the 2001 Mens Nationals in Omaha, NE! The NGB Meeting report!    I know this is very important information to alot of people so I will try and cover as much as possible. I arrived at the meeting a little late and the EC voting was underway. P.J.Couvillion and Bill Clayton were elected to fill Dan Lark and Mike Mooney's vacated postitions and Mike Hartle was elected to another term. Shawn Cain's motion to require all official coaches at International meets to be USAPL members in good standing was passed. The membership cards were voted to be for 12 months from the date of purchase as opposed to the calendar year previously. The motion to reduce high school membership fee to 15$ failed, but a motion from the floor at the end of the meeting passed to have a 6 month membership for high school lifters only from Dec 1 to May 31 for 15$. With a full year high school membership remaining 30$. The motion to hire a part-time bookeeper failed as well as the motion to block state meet sanctions that overlap with the Women's Natls. The motion to limit guest and exhibition lifters to members only in good standing passed. Also next years Natl meet schedule was ratified with the Womens in Chicago on Feb 8-10, High School in St Louis March 29-31, Collegiates in Kileen, Texas on April 12-14, Masters in May in Charlottsville, Va, Mens in August in Chicago and the Bench on Sept. 21,22 in Ohio. The motion to reinstate Horace Lane was not heard formally because his B sample needs to be tested 1st according to protocol. A lengthy discussion did take place to answer some of the NGB's questions and get everyone up to speed on where things are. C.J. Batten explained Horace's side while Mike Overdeer, Bettina Altizer and Mike Hartle gave the organization's side. Basically nothing was resolved with the organization's stance being that nothing else can happen until Horace chooses to get his B sample tested. I hope this covers most of the necessary information. The National meet report! Day 1, Session 1    The first session started at 1pm with 8 lifters from the 114's to 132's. Ervin Gainer went 2 for 2 in the sq. with a pr 424. He passed his 3rd. Ervin hit 2 benches to finish at 282. He hit all 3 pulls finishing with a 496 with room to spare. His opening pull broke a 7 yr old natl meet total record and his 2nd and 3rd broke his own american total record as well as rebroke the national total record. He finished with a 7/8 day with a 1201 total which is only 5 kilos from the silver medal at last years worlds. 2nd place was Mike Hafenbrack a 16yr old from Nebraska with 854 and 3rd was Dave Dewaters (17yr old) from Michigan with 815.    The 23's had 3 lifters with Damarrio Holliway taking 1st on his final pull of 473. He missed it at the top on his 2nd when he lost his balance but made it with room to spare for the win. He totalled 1068. In 2nd was master lifter Sam Meadows who made a comeback pull with 451 on his 3rd to move into 1st. before Holliways winning pull. In 3rd was Vince Niedoliwka a 15 yr old from Michigan who hit a Junior American record pull with 402 on his 3rd, he finished with a 998 total. Interestingly at subtotal all 3 lifters were tied with 595.    The 32's were the Taylor and Cunningham show from start to finish. Both lifters went 3 for 3 in the squat ending at 485. Tim's were slow and steady with each one looking better as the weight went up. Trey's were VERY deep with a dive bomb style similar to Rob Wagner. His opener was smoked, his 2nd a little slower and his 3rd was the perfect 3rd attempt with not a lb. to spare. In the bench the trend continued with both going 3 for 3. Tim ended with 336 and Trey 286. With Tim being the stronger puller this essentially ended the competition, but Trey sent a message about who is the lifter of the future at 132 with 3 pulls ending at 529 and a 1300 total. So all in all a 9 for 9 day with I imagine pr's across the board. Tim sealed his 11th consecutive National title with a 2 for 2 day ending at 545 and a 1366 total. Tim passed his last pull to rest a back injury but with some rest Tim is on the verge of sealing his legacy in Powerlifting history with a Gold Medal at the Worlds to go with his many national titles. So there you have it at 132, 2 lifters, 17 attempts, 17 made lifts, not bad at the biggest and toughest meet in the country. As a reminder these are NOT the official results, I did the best I could to be accurate but if there are any errors I apologize. I will do my best to get as much info out as soon as possible. Well the 165's start in 40 minutes, so time to go. Day 1, Session 2    There were 8 lifters in the 148's. Lance Slaughter bombed in the bench with 385, after squatting 451. 7th place was Michigan teenager David Kibler with 1262. 6th was Chris Hughes with 1344. Keith Scisney (1383)finished 2.5 kilos ahead of Mark Sigala, who pulled the classes highest dl of 600. Now the top 3 places became quite interesting. Scott Layman after only hitting 1 squat and taking 3 tries to get a bench in, went 3 for 3 in the pull to finish at 1454 in 3rd place. On a bad day Scott put 27 lbs on his total and he still dropped 1 spot from a 2nd place finish last year. The man who bumped Scott down a place was the vastly improved and very powerful looking Greg Page from Ohio. Greg went 6/9 with a 1465 to jump from 7th to 2nd place in one year. Greg put nearly 100lbs on his 4/9 performance from last year and one can only imagine what he might do with another year of training and a few more made lifts. If Page could have hit his 551 squat, which was turned down twice on depth, he would have put a scare into the defending champion Jeremy Arias who finished with a 1504 on a 5/9 day. Arias will be headed to Finland in November to improve upon his 4th place finish last year and move into the medals.    There were only 3 in the 165's with a tight battle for 2nd. Kenny Davis from NJ, hit 3 for 3 dlifts to finish at 1459. Greg Simmons, 5th place at 148 last year, moved up a class and went 9 for 9 to match Davis and take 2nd on bdwt. A great accomplishment at the toughest meet in the U.S. Now as expected the 1st place finisher was the 96 World Champion at 148 Wade Hooper. Wade opened at a HUGE 683 with a strong lift. For his 2nd Wade went after the 12 yr old 723lb world record in the squat held by Ausby Alexander. Wade chose 733 for his 2nd and hit the lift with room to spare but was turned down on depth 2 to 1. He repeated the attempt on his 3rd and it was a little tougher but was turned down again 2 to 1. Wade went 2 for 2 in the bench with a solid 451 and showed nice improvement in the DL with a 589 and a near miss at 606. Wade finished with a 1722 and Best Lifter for the session. Wade's 2 misses would have given him a big 1788 only 5lbs out of last years winning total at the Worlds. Looking ahead to tomorrow we've got the 81's and 98's in the morning and 220's in the afternoon. 9 time World Champion Dan Austin makes his return at 181 and at 198 we have Rob Wagner being challenged by Mike Mastrean and the return of former national champion and world team member at 181 Greg Jones. Obviously, if you are paying attention then something is missing at 198 and that is because defending natl champ Ray Benemerito will be moving up to 220 this weekend. I don't know what lifts Ray is expecting but if looks are any clue expect a VERY large bench and a pr total for him this weekend. The chain reaction continues as Tony Harris will be up a class as well and lift on Sunday in the 242's. Look for last years runner ups Charr Gahagan and Scott Zwaanstra, who battled to the last pull for 2nd and 3rd, as well as Junior lifter PJ Chovanec to contend in this class also. Next page