Last Saturday, December 11th 2021 was the Metal Militia World Championships and what a meet it was!
The meet was hosted by Metal Militia founder Bill Crawford with the help of the NY Chapter at the Fort William Henry in the beautiful town of Lake George, NY. This was the 5th year for our World Championships. The meet was capped at 50 lifters (Covid *sigh*) and with a couple of no-shows and a few bombs we ended the day with 38 lifters. The Bench Only meet took place in the morning and by 11am the Full Power meet began. The meet ended around 3:30pm and awards concluded by 5:00pm. The judging was tight but consistent and the spotters and loaders did a great job ensuring the meet ran smoothly and efficiently. There were no misloads or preventable injuries on the platform thanks to our great spotting and loading team! Specifically Julie Scanlon, Dave Hefferon, and John Zempken (our judges) and Paul Nicholson, Jeff Saunders, who spent most of their day on the platform.
Hellbent Barbell from Connecticut had one heck of a day taking both the Best Male Lifter and Best Female Lifter awards. Bobby Hume made history with a 2,000 lb Raw Total in the 242-weight class (750 lb squat, 500 lb bench and 750 lb deadlift). His teammate Jordan Buchla made her multiply (poly shirt) debut with a very impressive 1,550 lb total in the 198+ weight class (700 lb squat, 400 lb bench, and 450 lb deadlift). I never get tired of watching the way the Hellbent crew support and handle each other! In fact, while Jordan was working hard toward her total, she took the time to sit on another lifter’s shirt to keep it warm much like “hatching an egg” (her words).
Our oldest lifter was 74-year-old Skip Luppy, and our youngest registered lifter was 9-year-old Jayce Grygas. We also had a “special guest lifter,” 6-year-old Abel Scott who benched 45lbs with a little assistance from his dad Eric. Eric and his training partner Robert have made a few trips from Michigan to NY to compete in Metal Militia meets over the years. Eric was able to secure first place in the Raw Bench Only meet with a 475 lb raw bench at 275 lbs body weight!
Some other noteworthy numbers were a 935 lb squat from Sean Willits from Dave Barth’s chapter in PA, an 835 lb bench by NY Chapter President Nick “Young Buck” Rouse, and a 2320 lb total put up by Matt Hodge our Youngstown OH Chapter President. In this meet we had 5 lifters age 17 or younger, one of which was Bryce “the lady’s man” Reynolds who has been trained by Nick Rouse. Nathan Crispell took our best youth lifter award. Nathan is no stranger to Metal Melita meets and while he benches in a shirt (430 lb bench by the way) he squats and deadlifts raw which makes his 1230 total in the 198 weight class, at age 15, impressive. We had 3 first time competitors: Bryce, Stephanie McIntosh, Jacqueline Birnstill.
I’d like to give a special thanks to Bill Crawford for hosting the meet and making each lifter feel important. Thanks to Mandy Dennis who made and brought food for the lifters and assisted with set up and tear down. She also handled 2 lifters and competed in the push/pull herself! Thanks to Michelle Fritz who helped run the table and Bill Fritz for announcing. They are a powerful team. Thanks to Aaron Moore who did much of the set up with Bill and ran an amazing light show. The lights were so epic that people on the internet thought that Matt’s awesome EQUIPPED 790 lb bench looked like it “took place in a nightclub” 😃
Lastly, I’d like to thank all of those who competed this past weekend, whether you had a successful day or not. It is the lifters who make the meet and we, the Metal Militia, could not do this without you. We appreciate all of the hard work you put into your training and we applaud your efforts on the platform.
Interested in competing in a Metal Militia meet? Be sure to check the website as we will be posting the 2022 schedule very soon.
Full meet results can be viewed on Open Powerlifting here: https://www.openpowerlifting.org/m/mm/2119