2007 NEBRASKA STRONGEST MAN

[dj]

2007 Nebraska Strongest Man

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The 2007 Nebraska Strongest Man in now set. The entry form and rules are posted on NAS, www.nastrongmaninc.com. I am very excited about hosting a meet and hope for a great turnout. The contest is being held to benefit Camp CoHoLo, www.campcoholo.com, a local camp for children ages 6-17 with cancer or a blood disorder. Camp CoHoLo has no paid staff so all the money raised goes towards the children and their needs. Visit their website to learn more about them and what they do.
The contest is being held in downtown Papillion, NE (about 5 miles south of Omaha) at the American Legion Post #32. Right next to it there is a large park with a lot of shade trees, a shelter area, restrooms and playground. A great place to spend the day with the family.
We are going to try and do some exciting things for the spectators and the competitors. I am expecting a minimum of 200-300 spectators with the possibility of 1,000 or more as we are really promoting the contest and the City of Papillion is helping also by listing it in some of their literature and handouts. Just a few of the things in the works are an outdoor barbeque, a beer garden at the venue, a chiropractor (for adjustments at the contest) and some giveaways. I will keep you posted with any updates, competitor list and other worthy information.

Nebraska Strongest Man
Saturday, July 14, 2007

Rules: 9:30am
Start: 10:00am

Contest Site:
American Legion Post #32
230 W. Lincoln Rd.
Papillion, NE 68046
(about 5 miles south of Omaha)

Hotel info will be posted closer to contest date.

Divisions (weight classes):
Lightweight (up to 200)
Middleweight (201-265)
Heavyweight (266 and above)
Masters Open

Awards:
Custom Awards for 1st-3rd in each weight class

EVENTS AND RULES:

TIRE FLIP
Tire will start in the upright position. Competitors will have 75 sec. to flip the tire 60’. Only part of the tire must cross the finish line. Fastest time wins. If the 60’ course is not finished, a measurement will be taken for your score. Chalk and gorilla grip allowed, no tacky.
LW/Master 500#
MW 600#
HW 800#

LOG PRESS FOR MAX.
Competitors will have 60 sec. to complete each lift. 12” steel logs will be used. Continental allowed but no build-up(towel, etc.) of belt allowed. Three attempts with the Wessel’s Rule in effect. Competitors will compete two at a time, side by side. Competitors must not drop the weight. Wait for the down command to receive a good lift.

YOKE
Competitors will have 75 sec. to carry the yoke 60’. The whole implement must cross the finish line. Multiple drops allowed. Fastest time wins. If the 60’ course is not finished, a measurement will be taken for your score.
LW/Master 500#
MW 550#
HW 600#

FARMERS WALK FOR DISTANCE
No time limit. Turns every 60’. Competitors will carry the implements as far as they can without dropping them. Once one or both of the implements are dropped, a measurement will be taken for the score. Farthest distance wins. Chalk only. No tacky, gorilla grip or straps allowed.
LW/Master 210#
MW 230#
HW 250#

HARNESS TRUCK PULL w/LEAD ROPE
Competitors will have 75 sec. to pull the truck 60’. Only the front part of the truck needs to cross the finish line. Fastest time wins. If the 60’ course is not finished, a measurement will be taken for your score. Chalk and gorilla grip allowed. Gloves allowed.
LW/Master *TBA
MW *TBA
HW *TBA

*weights will be tested

[dopar66]

That is an awesome cause, DJ. I really respect and appreciate what you do, brother.

May God richly bless you for what you are doing!

[dj]

Thanks Doug. I have had alot of interest in it so far so it should be pretty successful.
I like doing it for a cause as I figure we are all very blessed to be able to compete like we do and these kids have a whole other fight ahead of them.
Thanks for the kind words.
D.J.

[dj]

Just an update on the Nebraska Strongest Man.
We have 22 competitors signed up so far with approx. 26 sponsors on board so far. We will cap the entries at 40.
The competitor "goody bags" are going to be real nice with things such as t-shirts, wrist wraps, supplements, etc.
We have competitors signed up from 7 states so far, California, Nebraska, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa & Missouri.
D.J.

[fatty]

DJ

Once I get my goal on the bench, i am heading to Strongman. My final surgury is now over and should be up and running by next year. Your the closest region since I am in Wyoming.

Will look forward to possibly doing this if you have it next year.

fatty

[lance]

DJ,
Do you have the 40 competitors set? I hope to make it to observe. THat is a GREAT event for an even Greater cause. I look forward to seeing an awesome event.

[dj]

Fatty and Lance, sorry I took so long to respond, I have to do a better job of paying attention to this section.

We definitely plan on having the event next year. It will either be in Omaha, NE or Council Bluffs, IA as the Iowa state chair and myself are discussing putting our two contests together and making it even bigger than this year. It would probably be held at either one of the casinos or convention centers. Just keep an eye on the Nas website, www.nastrongmaninc.com, for details or the anvil message board.

Yes we are full, we have been for a couple of months now and have a waiting list at the moment. We would love to have any of you come and watch as we have some awesome raffle items (100% of proceeds goes to the camp) and competitors from 9 different states.

D.J.

[lance]

I just got back from the Nebraska Strongest Man event (I couldn't stay for the whole thing since my two year old son was with me) that DJ organized for such a great cause. It was a smashing success! There were a lot of spectators with great merchandise being raffled and sold. I hope and pray that thousands were raised for that childrens camp. Congratulations DJ for running a top notch event. I just wish I could've stayed for the whole thing.

[dj]

Thanks Lance, it was very nice to meet you and I appreciate the kind words.
Here is the write-up on the event. It is a little long but I had a ton of people to thank.

Here is my write-up and take on the first annual Nebraska Strongest Man. Before I get to the events, I have to start off by thanking everyone that was involved. If I do forget someone, I do apologize and thank you more than you can imagine, but I believe I have everyone accounted for.
First off, thanks to all the competitors for putting on a great show and enduring the heat. Thanks to my beautiful wife for everything she did throughout the day (keeping all of us hydrated), the days leading up to the event and just in general for putting up with my analness. To my partner in this event, Richard “Vince” Vincent. You know how much your help meant and without you, I could have never have done this. To my judges, what an amazing job they did, Shawn Baier, Eric Todd, Zeb Sullivan & Ike Hammerly, for doing all you did all day, you guys kept things running very smoothly. To my loaders and spotters, Tonya, Chad, Jason, Kris, Billy, Lance & Scott, you all did an incredible job and worked your butts off all day.
To my mother, sister, brother-in-law and Stacy Nassen, for running the raffle table, shirt sales, etc., that took a load off my mind. To Cindy and Jake Gunia, for handling the parking situation. To Jesse Jobe, for letting me use his equipment for a lot of the events. To Scott Tully for his computer and scoring program and Darren Barnhart for the truck pull guide rope and extra harness. To Karla Barnhart, for being my head scorekeeper, she is simply the best. To Rob, who took care of announcing the raffle winners. To Jimmy Jett, for singing the national anthem and the use of his sound system. To the American Legion, SAL & Auxiliary, for the use of their facility, the porta-potties and everything else they did. To the City of Papillion, for bringing in the cones and bleachers. To Red Bull, for supplying us with a competitor tent, tables, product and $500 in prize money. To Willie Wessels, for doing a phenomenal job on the microphone all day and helping me to load the truck before the show and unload after the show. To Vince’s kids, for helping with giving out the awards and some crowd freebies. To all the sponsors that helped out with raffle items or goody bag items, you all did an incredible job.
I cannot thank all of you enough as none of this could have happened without you. I once again learned how important it is to have great help to run a successful meet. That really is the bottom line. I was very overwhelmed all day by the amazing work that you all did.

Now on to the contest. It was great to see a lot of familiar faces and a lot of new ones. I thought all the divisions were very competitive all day. The masters class had a tie for first with the win going to Mark Reinig by way of a tiebreaker. The lightweight class also had a tie for first with the win going to Mac Capello, in only his second contest, by way of a tiebreaker also. The top three were only separated by 1 pt. The middleweight class saw Charles Kasson win, in his first contest, in a very tough group of guys. The top three were only separated by 2 pts. The heavyweights battled it out all day with Eric Rothwell claiming 1st place. Eric has a great future in this sport.
There were many performances that were impressive all day but two that caught my attention were that of 17 yr. old Glenn Melnick, who in his first contest, was leading going into the truck pull and ended up in 3rd in the lightweight division. He was 1 pt. out of 1st place. I have been training Glenn and was very proud of his showing, especially against this group of LW’s.
Also, Tim Trumble, who finished 3rd in the Masters division. Tim called me Tuesday and said he was interested in doing the contest. He had never touched an implement before Saturday and had an incredible day. He was the only master to pull the truck the full distance.

Here are the results:

Master
Mark Reinig-34pts 1st
Dean Nascimben-34pts 2nd
Tim Trumble-27.5pts 3rd
Larry Kaiser-27pts 4th
Tim Nassen-25pts 5th
Louis Holt-17.5pts 6th

LW
Mac Capello-46.5pts 1st
Corey Kenkel-46.5pts 2nd
Glenn Melnick-45.5pts 3rd
Scott Byers-42.5pts 4th
Luke Chapman-42pts 5th
Brent Wilson-39.5pts 6th
Jared Enderton-30pts 7th
Jeff Jacobs-27.5pts 8th
Josh Schuler-26.5pts 9th
Tim Pinkerton-23pts 10th
Joe Chan-15.5pts 11th

MW
Charles Kasson-72pts 1st
Justin Wheeler-71.5pts 2nd
Zack Best-70pts 3rd
Andrew Waszgis-52.5pts 4th
Matt Baller-50pts 5th
Jesse Jobe-46.5pts 6th
Tim Silva-41.5pts 7th
Jason Bangs-41.5pts 8th
Ryan Batchman-41.5pts 9th
Phil Stevens-39.5pts 10th
Colin Wetlaufer-38pts 11th
Darren Barnhart-37pts 12th
Dave Kraft-33pts 13th
Mike Thomason-27pts 14th

HW
Eric Rothwell-18pts 1st
Mike Kromer-15pts 2nd
Conan Wass-10pts 3rd
Scott Tully-6pts 4th

Also, there was one final award given out. The Nebraska Strongest Man gave out a lifetime achievement award to Karla Barnhart for everything she does and has done for strongman, especially in the Midwest. Karla sacrifices a lot to come to most every meet in our four state area and keep score, usually the head scorekeeper. I felt she should be recognized in some way and was very happy to present her with the award.
We also raised over $1,800 for Camp CoHoLo between the raffle, t-shirt sales and donations. Thank you very much to all that helped make that happen. This will be enough to send 4 kids to camp.
Once again, thank you to everyone that helped make this contest run and we hope to see you all next year.
D.J.

[Williamson]

dj,

I'm giving some consideration to the 2008 event. Could you give someone fairly uninformed about strongman more details about the events, and an idea of how to prepare for a meet?

I have your link: www.nastrongmaninc.com/pdf/entries/2008Nebraska.pdf but I'm still unsure of some specifics. Is the weight listed for the farmer's walk, per hand or total? Are they separate implements or a one-piece frame?

Thanks.

[dj]

That sounds great, first thing would be to get your entry in asap if/when you decide to do it as we only allow 40 competitors and it will fill up fast.

As far as the meet, the farmers are a separate implement in each hand and the weight listed is per hand. The best way to prepare is to train with strongman implements once a week. Also, continue with gym work (squats, deads, etc.) as this will help with your basic strength and all the events.
If you want, let me know, and I will give you the guy's email addy's in the Salina area that train strongman. They are very knowledgeable and could help you train/prepare alot.
D.J.

[Williamson]

DJ, I sent an email your way last night. If you would, please reply with the address of your contact here in Salina.

I also asked about clothing, particularly logos on T-Shirts.

Thanks for the information.