Visitors travel from all over for competition.
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The Cowboy State Strongman Classic brought a
number of men and women to town on Saturday, Sept. 7, to roll huge
concrete stones over bars and drag trucks up South Lincoln Avenue.
The competitors hailed from as close to home as Pinedale and Big
Piney to as far away as Billings, Mont., and Ogden, Utah. Athletes,
their friends and families set up shade tents and umbrellas, stretched
and practiced lifts and cheered each other on. Many were novices and
participating in their first or second competitions, which as organizer
Andrew Zook told them, means they are “no longer novices.”
Events included lifting circus dumbbells, a Nissan car on a platform
and weighted “Atlas stones” made from concrete. Women harnessed
up to pull a Dodge Ram dually and men, a wildland fire truck with 750
gallons of water added. When the imperceptible slope of South Lincoln
proved to best every male athlete, Zook decided to dump about 7,000
pounds of water and turn the truck around – and every contestant pulled
and competed against the clock.
At the end of the day, sole male heavyweight David Keetley won all
of his events.
Closer scores came up in the middleweight
division where Valgier “Valley” Arnason
took first and Doug Wellemeyer and Ian
Driskell tied for second. The tiebreaker? Carrying
a 500-pound stand on their shoulders the
farthest. Driskell made it 24 feet, 10 inches.
Wellemeyer then went “farther” for second.
In men’s novice, Mike Martino took first,
followed by Austin Lofland and Brian Singer.
The “really awesome competitive women”
pushed themselves and cheered fellow female
athletes as hard if not harder than the
men, with Zook announcing first place went
to Guilia Vernati, second to Jalyn Anderson
and third to Alivia Patterson, from Big Piney.
The Cowboy State Strongman Classic was
sponsored by Wyoming Athletic Development
with Rocky Mountain Yeti donating use
of their vehicles as “weights.”