Senior exercise science major Jon Furrh won his third consecutive Iron Owl powerlifting competition on Oct. 28 despite suffering from a torn pectoralis muscle.
Furrh managed to outlift all other competing males, tallying a total of 1,695 lbs. through three lifts, just three weeks before scheduled surgery on his torn pectoralis.
“This is a nice little parting gift on my way out,” Furrh said. “I’m having surgery in three weeks so this is kind of like a last hoorah before that happens, and then I start rehab. So it felt good to get the win.”
The first-place winner of the female class was Emily Cipra, a senior criminal justice major. Having been referred to the competition by Furrh, Cipra managed to walk away from her first Iron Owl competition with the win.
Cipra lifted a total of 860 lbs., nearly 300 lbs. more than the women’s second-place finisher.
Furthermore, Cipra’s performance serves as an inspiration for other females to start lifting weights as a hobby themselves.
“A big thing with women is that they’re scared of weights and participating in it,” Cipra said. “You’ve got to get in there. There’s nothing that feels better than holding that amount of weight.”
This year marked KSU’s eighth annual Iron Owl competition. Iron Owl is a powerlifting competition hosted by the KSU Sports and Recreation Center that consists of three powerlifting exercises — squats, bench press and deadlift.
Each competitor gets three attempts per lift in an effort to accumulate the most weight through nine total lifts.
Other than sex, competitors are separated into three distinct categories-lightweight, middle-class and heavyweight. Since there are only two overall winners, scores are calculated using the Wilks formula.
The Wilks Formula is used to compare the strength of powerlifters against each other despite the different weights of the lifters.
Iron Owl is open to anyone who wants to participate, regardless of weightlifting experience. Whether you have been lifting weights for 10 years like Jon Furrh, or for a few months, Iron Owl is a great way to network with your peers and to jumpstart your practice in powerlifting.
Senior exercise science major, Khenji Harris was a first-time competitor at Iron Owl. Harris expressed regrets for not competing in a similar event at his previous school, Georgia Southern, but seemed content with KSU’s competition.
“I met some cool people today,” Harris said. “Everybody is encouraging, that’s what I like about this environment.”
Harris managed to lift 1,050 lbs., enough weight to land him third-place in the men’s middleweight class.
While any student is eligible to compete, competitors were required to have an understanding of how to correctly complete the lifts using the right technique.
“I’m looking for an even bar path [on the squat] and watching their depth going down,” said head judge Ronnie Adams. “Same thing for the bench press — even bar path and making sure the bar touches the chest before going back up.”
Students who would like to prepare for next year’s Iron Owl, take the advice from this year’s top performer.
“Work hard, eat right, sleep right,” Furrh advised, “Hard work pays off, but it’s consistency over time that matters the most.”
