W.Va. man wins Strongman title

Monday, June 2, 2003 | 9:38 a.m.

Phil Pfister of West Virginia won three of the six events to take overall top honors at the Vegas Strongman Challenge before a crowd of about 500 at UNLV's Rebel Park football practice fields on Saturday night.

Pfister won the Coors Keg Load, the Findlay Toyota SUV Pull and the Harrison Door Weight Carry en route to a final score of 14.5 points (lowest score wins) and $4,000 in first place prize money.

Steve Kirit of Pennsylvania finished second with 15.5 points and won the Stone Load event. Kirit picked up stones weighing 250, 286, 320, 346 and 380 pounds and placed them on 52-inch high boxes in 27.8 seconds. None of the 15 competitors managed to lift a sixth boulder that weighed 435 pounds.

Kirit also tied Karl Gillingham, son of former Green Bay Packers lineman Gale Gillingham, in the Camry Lift. Both lifted the car 10 times in 75 seconds.

John Andersen of California won the Terrible Herbst/Valvoline Tire press with 10 reps in 75 seconds.

Pfister and Kirit had already previously qualified for the U.S. Strongman Nationals on Aug. 8 in St. Louis as did third place finisher Jesse Maunde of Washington (26.5). The next five highest finishers -- John Beatty of Michigan, Andersen, Art McDermott of Boston, Grant Higg of Oregon and Chris Doyle, the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Iowa -- also qualified for nationals.

"I was pretty happy with how things ran," Mark Philippi, the strength and conditioning coach at UNLV who organized the event, said. "It went smoothly and stayed on schedule. Most of the people who competed said it was one of the best they took part in."