USAPL Washington State Holiday Classic Mike and Diana Trupiano put on another "classic" powerlifting meet Dec. 16 in the Seattle area that featured TSO lifters Dean Reese and Doug and Courtenay Schurman as well as lifting legend John Binkowski. Missing, however, was Andrew "Bull" Stewart, who sent in an entry form but didn't make an appearance. Dean, Doug and Courtenay all did TSO proud. After a serious attempt at bombing in the deadlift, Dean took first place in the 275 men's. Doug lifted raw in the 198 class and would have placed high except for his token bench press. Courtenay, lifting at 148, came close to winning best female lifter at the meet. John Binkowski is as massive as he looks in his pictures and weighed in at 378.6 pounds. He nailed a 870 opener on the squat, but missed on two attempts at an unbelievable 925. The spotters did a great job of handling all that weight. Bink had a strange habit, even after the missed attempt was racked, of staying under the rack with his hands still on the bar, pausing for a few seconds as if he didn't want the lift to be over. On the bench he went two for three, making 550 and 575 before missing at 590. He pulled a massive 720 for his opening deadlift but couldn't get 760 past his mid-calf sticking point in two attempts. A very gracious guy, he stayed around and chatted with the other lifters after the awards ceremony, where he was presented with the best male lifter trophy for his 2165 total. Other impressive lifters included Leamon Woodley, who totaled 1620 in the 181 class at the age of 43; Bob Heck's 717 squat in the 220 class, where he totaled 1750; Matthew Berry's 1505 total in the men's 165 class; Gloria Bennet winning best female lifter at the "ripe" age of 47; teen lifters Jeff Theorell and Hunter Hazen, who put up numbers that belonged in the men's open categories; and the inspiring team of lifters from the Washington State School for the Blind. When he catches his breath, Mike will put up the results on his web site werlifting/nrthwst.htm>. I got to meet Dean's charming wife, who smiled mysteriously when I asked her how she puts up with Dean's ebullient personality. I also met Dean's coach, who seems to be a lifter's dream--a steady, knowledgeable veteran who lifts with Dean in the gym at the ungodly hour of 4:15 a.m. I'm sure his presence and encouragement had a lot to do with Dean making that final deadlift attempt. Doug and Courtenay are a gracious, friendly couple who run their own personal fitness business in Seattle. Doug lifts raw yet trains Westside style--which should help convert skeptics who believe that Westside is only for chemically enhanced lifters in three-ply denim bench shirts. More than 80 lifters entered, though some didn't show up, perhaps because of snow in the passes. We had several lifters bomb out or scratch, so the numbers were manageable for those of us helping to run the two-platform contest . Fortunately, world-class lifter Yueh Chun Chang handled most of the announcing duties and I just spelled her when she was on break. Trying to call two platforms at the same time is quite a stressful experience. Not only do you want to make damn sure you called the weights right and the lifters in the right order, but you want to pronounce everyone's name using a reasonable facsimile of what they call themselves. By the way, if you volunteer for Mike and Diana's meets, you get to enjoy a scrumptious buffet in the volunteer's room. The Trupianos do a great job of running a very smooth meet that just gets better and better every time. I'm already looking forward to the one-- the 2001 Washington State USAPL Championships on April 14. Tom Griffin Seattle, Washington Weighty Matters: An Archive of the Best on the Net about Weights on 12/19/00 8:28 AM, "Schurman, Doug" wrote: My wife Courtenay and I competed Saturday in the USAPL Wash State Holiday Classic. I want to thank Mike and Diana Tripiano for a great meet. It was very well organized and a pleasure to participate in. Also, I want to thank Tom Griffin. He did a great job announcing, taking next attempts and coordinating things. I got to meet Dean Reece there. He put up some very good numbers. Good job Dean. My wife Courtenay lifted in the morning session in the 148 lb open class. She lifts raw (belt only). For squats she went 200, 225 and then got 2 reds on 245 for depth. It popped up very easy. She'll get it next time. For bench she got 125, 135 and missed 145. 135 was a PR for her. On deads she pulled 225, 250 and 275. She still had a little more in her too. She was very happy with her lifts. She hasn't competed in over two half year and only had about 8 weeks of serious training. She's looking forward to the 2001 Washington State USAPL Championships on April 14. I lifted in the afternoon in the 198 open class. It's been over 2 years since my last meet. I've been hampered by multiple shoulder injuries. My latest was a shoulder separation in July. However, I couldn't let that stop me from lifting. I lift raw (belt only) now. I was pretty nervous having not competed for quite a while. I opened with 370 in the squat. It felt great. Then 400 felt strong and finally I finished with 425 and 3 whites. This was my goal for the meet. It was a 20lb PR for my raw squat. My shoulder is still not fully healed so I just benched 135 to stay in the meet. Next meet I hope to out bench my wife. ;) I haven't been training the deadlift to much recently because of my shoulder. My previous PR was 530. In my training I did 5 weeks of speed deadlifts working up to 390 plus 40 pounds of chains. The training felt tough so I was hopping to make 500 in the meet. In the meet I opened at 450. It went right up. The second lift was 480 and it felt just as easy. Finally, I gave my third attempt of 505 to the table. One of the guys that was helping me out said I had at least 515 or 520 in me. I thought about changing but I didn't want to pull too hard on my shoulder. 505 came up very easy. I know I had another 20 pounds in me but I was happy to make 500 and not kill my shoulder. I'm going to do Mike's meet in April and my goals are squat 440, be able to bench more than my wife, and deadlift 540. It felt great to compete again. Doug Schurman, CSCS Body Results Seattle, WA doug@bodyresults.com