Furman Powerlifting wins WNPF World Championship team title

The World Natural Powerlifting Federation, America’s largest drug free powerlifting organization, held their 16^th World Championships in Atlanta Ga. On November 9, 10 and 11. Teams from 8 different counties (Brazil, Canada, England, Estonia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Republic of Georgia, and the US) competed as well as several teams from across the United States (New York, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Ohio, Florida, the Carolinas, California, and Georgia) in this three day event. Despite intense competition, the Furman University Powerlifting team, the same team that won the 2007 USA Powerlifting Championships this past summer, won the overall World Powerlifting Team Championship. This included 1^st place in the team bench press repetition event where team members bench press their body weight as many times as they can, 1^st place in the team full powerlifting event which adds the total of the bench press, squat and deadlift, 2^nd place in the team bench event and 1^st place in the team power curl event. Several Furman lifters placed in the top ten in each event amassing team points. Individual medalists (top 3) were as follows:

Jaimie Grossnickle – 1^st in two events in the 105 lb. Women’s Junior Div (20-23 yr. old) with a bench press of 83 lb. and a power curl of 65 lb.

Elisa Miller - 1^st in two events in the 155 lb. Women’s Junior Div (20-23 yr. old) with a bench press of 165 lb. and a power curl of 71 lb.

Brandon Gold - 1^st in two events in the 181 lb. Men’s Junior Div (20-23 yr. old) with a bench press of 292 lb. and repetition max total of 25 reps.

Austin Watson - 1^st in two events in the 198 lb. Men’s Junior Div (20-23 yr. old) with a bench press of 314 lb. and repetition max total of 18 reps. Austin was 4^th in the power curl just missing a medal in that event.

Dr. Tony Caterisano - 1^st in two events in the 220 lb. Men’s Masters Div (50-59 yr. old) with a power curl of 141 lb. and repetition max total of 17 reps, and 2^nd with a bench press of 326 lb..

Furman alumnus Jeff Fambrough - 1^st in three events in the 275 lb. Men’s Junior Div (20-23 yr. old) with a full meet total of  1619 lb., a squat of 661 lb. and a bench press of 352 lb.

Quote from Coach Caterisano “ The competition was the best I’ve seen since joining the WNPF 11 years ago, but the Furman lifters really stepped up and met the challenge. The international diversity made this a fun powerlifting meet, and the Furman lifters really enjoyed interacting with the other lifters during this three day event.”