| Thanks |
| What a great group turned out for the 2007 Imperium meet at the asylum. We had our usual host of awesome people to help out with everything. Our first thanks sould have to go out to John Inzer of Inzer Advance Designs. He always makes sure we have a nice promotion package for our meets, including plenty of tee shirt ammunition for the tee shirt cannon. House of Pain Ironwear also sends some nice items for our lifters. Iron Woody Fitness has recently joined our list of sponsors. We welcome them and hope you will look for their products on our website. Our sponsors enable us to do a little bit extra with each meet, and for this we thank them and encourage people to spend their money with the ones who give back to this sport. Carl Seeker packed up the trophies for this meet and came up from Warren, PA as always to help in any way he can. He not only brings his amazing trophies, he also brings his mc skills and platform assistance as well. Ed and Kathy always handle our kitchen and did a great job as always. So much help on the platform....Jon Rock, what a freaking guy. He came to the meet strictly to help out, and he loaded and spotted all day long. You just don't come across people like this every day. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts Jon. John Impallomeni came to the meet with John Bott and his crew. John helped out all day long as well. Jose came up to support Joel Toranzo and was more than willing to help out all day also. Jim Farina, Tone Barbaccio and Kia Seaberry were a big help all day. Joe Ceklovsky and his wife, Natalie came down on Friday night to help move all of the equipment around and do all of the last minute meet preparations. They stuck around on Sunday to see Sarah's performance in "Grease" too, and this really meant the world to her...she even did Joe's signature "penguin" dance on stage in Joe's honor...and with that I must also thank Sarah and Kerrigan for all the work that they put into our meets at the asylum. Our kids are awesome! We had some really talented first time lifters as well as some of the seasoned favorites. In the full power we had 3 female first time lifters, 2 of them being high school girls that train at the asylum. Rheta West also stepped on the platform for the first time, after only training a few months. Sandy "The Sandblaster" Tepper put up his first 500 squat at a bodyweight of 148. Denis Slivka, who has only lived in the states for 7 years, made his asylum debut. Scott Rowe put up an impressive 2105 total @ 220. Damon Byrd and Chris DelPreore both put some impressive pounds on their totals, as did Brian Furgala in his first double ply meet. John Zemken of Albany Strength totaled an awesoem 1800 in the 242 Masters division. Dan Lynch, an impressive raw lifter from NH, impressed the crowd once again with his 325 bench and 530 deadlift at a bodyweight of 181. Kia Seaberry, girlfriend of the legendary Dave Kirschen (okay...legend in his own mind), pulled her first competition deadlift of 285. Some incredible bench action was happening as well, with top contender in the female 123 division, Janet Faraone benching 315 and putting great effort into 350. Bill Futrell came out from Syracuse to bench in his first meet, putting up 405 @ 242. Raphael "Hero in a Half Shell" Rodriguez benched 325 in his frist meet. He was accompanied by Jake Roberts, who benched a very impressive 415. We've known Jake for some time and he's a real solid guy with great integrity. Ed Bedow came in all the way from Grand Valley, PA to compete. I really wish we could have broken him in properly at the post meet shenanigans, but he was called away. Another first time competitor, Mark Kemeka, benched an impressive raw 335 in the Masters III division. Jim Farina also competed raw in the 275 class and benched 435. Masters lifter, Vinnie Vardine, came in at a bodyweight of 312 and benched 460, just missing 475. We certainly can't forget the asylum's own Frank Farina, who at an age of 53 has suddenly taken an interest in bench shirts. Frank, training just a few months, benched 365. Great work Frank. 400 is right around the corner. The superstar of the bench was Shawn Lattimer. Shawn has been through injury and personal hell in the past year (probably more). Some may have thought he wasn't coming back around, but we personally have seen him making his comeback, one step at a time. On this day he put up an amazing 905 bench, which puts him on a very short list of men who have accomplished this. The post meet shenanigans were as good as would be expected. The hotel that accomodates our lifters went above and beyond as always. There was plenty of good food and drink to be had. The following week, we were on Fortified Iron trying to recall what kind of drinks were being passed along, and I still don't know that the list was complete. Many great lifts and many great bonds to be celebrated. Good times! At one point we were sitting at the bar kicking back with some beers and John Bott looked around the bar and said "What a great group. Everyone is always welcome and there is no bullshit". That about says it all. We took a large group of lifters, packed them into a small bar and had a great time. Kerri stayed up until 4 am with us. Is it a good idea to have your 11 year old hanging out with all the filthy powerlifters until wee hours of the morning? Ofcourse it is. They are all like family to her and they all treat her as an equal. Thanks to all who supported the 2007 Imperium. We appreciate each and every one of you. |