2007 NEBRASKA STRONGEST MAN

July 14

All proceeds to benefit Camp CoHoLo

Here is my write-up and take on the first annual Nebraska Strongest Man. Sunny and 90 degrees, great strongman weather. 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. Ike,Shawn,ET &Zeb

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. Mike Kromer

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. Dean

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.

EVENTS:
Log Press for Max.
Tire Flip-60'(LW & Master 500#, MW 600#, HW 800#)
Yoke Carry-60' (LW & Master 500#, MW 550#, HW 600#)
Farmers Walk for Distance (LW & Master 210#, MW 230#, HW 250#)
Truck Pull w/Harness-60' (Semi tractor for all divisions)

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
Logo 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.

EVENT SPONSORS

Triple M Construction...............................Log Press
MaxMuscle Sports Nutrition...................Tire Flip
Brumbaugh & Quandahl Law Office........Yoke Carry
Fulton Farms..............................................Farmer Walk
APT............................................................Truck Pull