Kennelly sets world bench press record

Ryan Kennelly of Moses Lake broke his world record in the super heavyweight class bench press by lifting 1,0741/2 pounds at the UPA Pro Am Power Weekend in Dubuque, Iowa, on July 13.

Kennelly, 34, first broke the world record – 1,010 pounds – last December with a lift of 1,036 pounds at an event in Kennewick.

“I’ve put over 100 pounds on my bench in a year’s time,” he said. “In March 2007, I went to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic in Columbus, Ohio, and benched 903. After I set the world record, I reached 1,070 in April.”

Kennelly is a personal trainer who has been training as a bench press specialist for 15 years.

“It’s like working to become a doctor,” he said. “It takes that long to become a world champion. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. I just eat, sleep and train.”

To maintain his weight, which was 335 pounds when he set his most recent record, his grocery bill is about $250 a week to support an intake of about 15,000 calories a day. He trains six days a week, resting on Saturdays.

“Most people go to church (on Sunday),” he said. “I go to hell. I work with 1,000, 1,100, sometimes 1,200 pounds on the bar. A mistake with 500 pounds can kill you. When you have that much on the bar, it changes you.”

Kennelly called the movements with that much weight “partial movement bore presses.” Boards are used to check the weight to practice getting to lock out.

“Eight weeks ago I handled 1,200 pounds twice in training,” he said. “The first time my vision blurred. The second time it wasn’t an issue. Maybe 1,300 will be like that, too.”

Before he attempts to raise his super heavyweight bench press record again, Kennelly is dropping some of his bulk to compete in the heavyweight class, 276 to 308 pounds, where the world record is 942 pounds. He will attempt to break that record later this month in Kennewick.

“I want my name everywhere you look in the record books,” he said. “Hopefully, it will be there in four weeks.”

Track and field

George Matthews of Hayden Lake won four gold medals at the 2008 Washington State Senior Games last weekend in Centralia.

Competing in the men’s age 65-69 age bracket that included four-time Olympian Ed Burke, Matthews won the hammer at 166 feet, 11 inches, the 20-pound weight throw at 65-21/4, the super weight throw (44 pounds) at 33-111/2 and the shot put (16 pounds) at 41-13/4.

Matthews holds the senior American record in the super weight throw at 34-101/4. He will compete in the USA Track and Field Masters Championships at Spokane Falls Community College Thursday through next Sunday.

College scene

Kezia Kelly, a sophomore guard on the Washington State women’s basketball team, was named to New Zealand’s junior national team.

The Junior Tall Ferns, New Zealand’s national U-19 team, will play a three-game qualifier against Australia later this summer, with the winner earning a berth to the Junior World Championships.

Kelly, who also played for the Junior Tall Ferns in 2007, started 25 of the Cougars’ 30 games as a true freshman last season, with honors on the Pacific-10 Conference All-Freshmen Team.

•Ekaterina Burduli has joined the Washington State tennis team as an assistant coach. Burduli replaces Courtney Steinbock, who was assistant coach for the past two years.

A native of Tel Aviv, Israel, Burduli had one of the top careers of any Cougars tennis player. She finished the 2008 season with a team-leading 28 victories, the first player in WSU history to register three consecutive 20-win seasons. The 28 wins also mark a WSU single-season record. Burduli ended her WSU career with a school-record 91 career singles victories.

She led WSU to the NCAA championships last season for the first time since 2002 while also making her second appearance at the NCAA singles championships. She was the recipient of the WSU Big 10 Senior Award, which recognizes the 10 most accomplished graduating seniors for the entire university, the WSU Blankenship Outstanding Student-Athlete Award, WSU’s women’s Pac-10 medal winner and WSU’s NCAA Woman of the Year nominee.

•The Gonzaga University women’s volleyball squad earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association team academic award for the 2007-08 season. The Bulldogs, who finished the school year with a 3.39 cumulative GPA, are one of 70 NCAA Division I teams honored and are one of two teams from the West Coast Conference.

•Steve Whitaker has joined the University of Idaho volleyball program as an assistant coach. Whitaker will replace Mike Bryant, who accepted a similar position at the University of Pittsburgh last week.

Whitaker was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Washington and helped the Huskies to the 2005 NCAA national championship. The team also made the Final Four in 2006.

Football

The Inland Empire Football Officials Association will hold its first organizational meeting of the year Monday at the Gonzaga University School of Business Jepson Center at the corner of Boone and Astor. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. for last year’s apprentices and new officials. The veteran officials will meet at 6:30.

Anyone interested in becoming a football official is urged to attend. The association supplies officials for 33 high schools, 32 middle schools, as well as the YMCA Grid Kids and SYSA programs. For information, contact Dan Mencke at 218-8650.

Senior Games

Two Spokane basketball teams, put together by Jon Heimbigner, have qualified for National Senior Games at Stanford University next August.

Nationals, which began in 1987, are held every two years. Qualifying for them is done statewide during the off-years.

Papermill Printing’s 55-59 and 60-64 age group teams qualified by winning their divisions of the Washington State Senior Games. It marked the seventh consecutive year Papermill’s 55-59 team came home victorious. This was the first time Papermill Printing played in the 60-64 age group.

Playing for Papermill Printing 55-59, which went 3-0 at Tumwater High near Olympia, were Harvey Depew, Bill Maxey, Jack Soliday, Dan Steward, Doug Watson and Dave Wood.

The 60-64 team also was 3-0 and includes Heimbigner, Randy Dolven, Ed Fredenburg, Dave Hovde, Dave Pounds, Jerry Skaife and Jim Thacker.

A third Papermill team won bronze in the 50-54 age group and featured Ron Cox, Tim Gaebe, Jim Preston, Dave Tikker and Paul Tikker. It was the first time in 11 years a team other than Papermill won that division.

Heimbigner has organized the teams and played all 11 years.