APF/AAPF Chicago Summer Bash II
at Velocity Sports Performance in Willowbrook, IL
July 9, 2005
Official Results
In HTML
In an Excel Document
Pictures
The Chicago Summer Bash was back this year, and was bigger and better than ever. We had almost 90 lifters at the meet, over double the amount of lifters from last year. The meet was held at a beautiful facility, Velocity Sports Performance in Willowbrook, IL. Unlike the hot, cramped area last year, Velocity provided us with plenty of room to run a great meet. Thanks to Dale Deatsch, the owner, and James DiNaso the executive director for allowing us to put on the event at Velocity.
We had some great lifters this year from all over the midwest, and even from halfway around the globe. We had lifters from all over Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, and even one lifter all the way from Japan. Young servicewoman, Ashley Bryant, is serving our country in Japan in the air force. Ashley flew all the way from Japan to Chicago for the meet! We had four big teams at the meet, with the Frantz Power Team right from Aurora, Illini Powerlifting from the University of Illinois, Team Carpenter from Iowa, and Big Iron Gym from Nebraska.
The highlight of the meet came from Big Iron’s Becca Swanson, the strongest woman in the world, who benched an amazing 230 kg or 507 lbs! An All-Time record for women! And I believe this is likely just another stepping-stone for Becca, the 507 was very strong, I am sure she has more weight in her bench. In addition to Becca, a young student from South Chicago Occupation Academy won over the hearts of everyone at the meet. Otis Brown, a Special Olympics competitor, competed in the 132 lb teenage class. Brown was able to squat 292 lbs, bench 220 lbs, and deadlift an amazing 402 lbs, all in only a belt and a singlet. His teacher and coach Dimity Gueorguiev expertly guided him through all the lifts, on his way to setting a number of AAPF National Records. And these were NOT Special Olympic records, they were the standard AAPF 132 lb teenage class records that Otis broke. At the awards ceremony, no one got a bigger ovation that Otis!
In the best lifter categories, first we had Todd Greninger who the Best APF Powerlifter with a 2099 lb total in the SHW submaster class. In the AAPF Powerlifting division, Frantz lifter Bob McConaughey won the best lifter award with a 1764 lb total in the 242 lb masters 1 class. We had another two best lifters in the Ironman category, which is bench press plus deadlift for a total. In the APF Ironman, Big Iron lifter Nick Simon won best lifter with a 529 lb bench and a 650 lb deadlift in the 220 lb open class. Young teenage lifter Greg Hines won the best lifter award in the AAPF Ironman with lifts of 446 lbs on the bench and 524 lbs on the deadlift in the 198 lb teenage class. The men’s bench only awards were taken over by Team Carpenter. Winning the best lifter award in the APF Bench only was Jeff Leach, with the biggest bench of the day with 733 lbs in the 308 lb open class. Fellow Carpenter lifter Jay Cravatta won the best lifter award in the AAPF Bench only with a 639 lb bench in the 220 lb open class. Finally in the women, none other than Becca Swanson won both the Best Female Powerlifter award and the Best Female Bench award with her 1857 lb total and 507 lb bench in the UNL women’s open class.
With four big teams at this meet, we had one of the most competitive team competitions in any meet in the midwest in recent history. With four of the best teams in the midwest, and likely the nation, it was a very close race between the four. The team scoring was done by giving points for the placings of 12 team members, and also giving extra points for best lifter awards. Taking fourth place was Team Carpenter out of Iowa, led by World Bench Press Champion Bill Carpenter. Team Carpenter looked very strong on the bench, taking both men’s best bench awards with Jeff Leach and Jay Cravatta. Unfortunately, with team scoring being dependent on the placings of the team members, a few bomb outs are what hurt Team Carpenter. I’m sure Team Carpenter will be back, and back stronger than ever in their next meet. Look for them all to put some big numbers at Bill Carpenter’s September 10 meet, the APF “Iron Battle on the Mississippi” in Dubuque, IA. Entry forms are available on APF-Iowa.com. In third place was Big Iron Gym out of Nebraska, coached by Rick Hussey, and led by Becca Swanson. Big Iron had some great lifting, especially with Swanson taking two best lifter awards, and Nick Simon taking another one in the APF Ironman. On points, Big Iron actually tied with Illini Powerlifting, but lost on a tie-breaker based on who had more 1st place finishes. Again, a couple bomb-outs hurt Big Iron.
Taking second was Illini Powerlifting, from the University of Illinois, led by coach John Hudson. Illini chose their attempts well in the meet, having not one member bomb out. Their lack of bomb outs led them to second place, having more 1st place finishes than Big Iron. They were not, however, able to take home any best lifter awards, which kept them out of the top place. Taking first was the Frantz Power Team out of Aurora, IL. The regular Frantz lifters were joined by nearby friendly gym members from the Leaning Tower YMCA, the Lilliebridge family, and also by our Japanese connection Ashley Bryant. The Frantz team was led by AAPF Powerlifting Best Lifter Bob McConaughey. In addition to McConaughey, every one of the other 11 scoring members on Team Frantz took first place, putting the team at the top placing. Team Frantz had a strong female bench contingent led by Sidney Thoms. The Frantz Team came home with their second team trophy this year after winning the award at the Illinois State Meet in March.
In putting on such a large event, I simply would not have been able to survive without all the help running the meet. First and foremost, I would like to put out a special thanks to my Assistant Meet Director and fiance Jackie Ebben for putting in all the extra hours she did helping me set-up, run, and clean-up for the meet. Jackie did a great job all day on the microphone announcing for me (and I think she enjoyed it too). Simply put, I could not have done it without her. I’m very lucky to have such a great woman at my side, and will thankfully now have at my side for the rest of my life! I would also like to put out a special thanks to APF Illinois State Chairman Maris Sternberg. She also put countless hours before and during this meet, being my technical officer, and head official for the meet. Maris has been with me since my first last summer, and I would not be the meet director I am today without her mentoring and help. Finally, another special thanks goes out to my training partner Jason Visny. Jason graciously volunteered his expertise and help in moving the equipment from Frantz Sports in Aurora to Velocity in Willowbrook. And, he still lifted in the, winning first place in a close race. Jason gave me the use of his tools and his truck to help move the two monolifts, bench, bars, platforms, and kilos plates needed to run this meet. Again, I could not have put on the meet without his help either!
In addition to those special people, I had a number of other people in support staff that I owe a debt of gratitude. Sharra Powell, a close friend, came and helped Jackie run the table. In addition to Maris, I also had WPC Official John Burgard on the platform judging all day long. James DiNaso, executive director of Velocity, also stepped in to judge. The judging all day was fair and consistent, thanks to all of those judges. Ryan Harth also stepped in at the end of the meet to announce for me while Jackie did the scoring for the meet, thanks goes out to him for stepping in at the last minute. Marita Blaken and Sidney Thoms did a great job taking pictures for the meet; I would like to thank them for their time. Their pictures are available for sale on ChicagoPowerlifting.com. I would also like to thank all the spotters/loaders for the day, they did a great job, working very quickly all day, and saving a lot of lifters. Finally, I would like to thank the staff and interns at Velocity for doing their part in keeping the meet running smoothly.
We also had some great sponsors for this meet. House of Pain Ironwear sent out t-shirts for the staff, and also some extras to give away to the lifters, thanks to HOP. Crains Muscle World came through for us again, giving us some gift certificates that were given out to the best lifters. All Pro Protein also donated some gift certificates that were given to the best lifters. Monster Muscle and Powerlifting USA were gracious in giving us magazines and posters to give away to the lifters…unfortunately in the mist of the meet, they were left untouched and were not given away to the lifters. I apologize to those magazines and the lifters for not doing my job in getting those extras out. Their stuff, however, did not go to waste; I gave the extra materials to Amy Jackson to use for the AWPC Worlds on July 29-31 in Chicago.
I would like to once again thank everyone involved in the meet, and congratulate and thank all the lifters for competing. Once again, pictures of the meet are for sale on ChicagoPowerlifting.com, please check them out and buy one of the great shots available. Stay tuned to APF-Illinois.com for upcoming APF meets in the Chicago-area. Look for the Windy City Ironman to return early next year, and also look for Summer Bash 3 some time next summer.
Eric Stone
Meet Director
APF/AAPF Chicago Summer Bash II
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