It was a battle of brawn this weekend as the Powerlifting Club hosted the Pennsylvania State Powerlifting Championships in the White Building.

The championships, a preliminary event to Nationals, took place on Penn State turf in part due to meet director Steven Mann's wishes. Planning began in May 2000, and judging from the large crowd the event drew this weekend, the event was the success Mann and the Powerlifting Club hoped to see.

"I hoped to organize the event in order to bring powerlifting back to its glory in Pennsylvania," said Mann.

Men and women came from Pennsylvania as well as Ohio, Maryland, Delaware and Georgia came to compete, ranging in age from 16-61 and in weight from 97 pounds to super heavyweight. Representatives from Team Slovak and Team Canada were also on hand to compete this weekend. "Kaptain"Kirk Karwoski, who holds the world-record for a 1003 pound squat, was also present to give pointers to lifters.

The powerlifting championship is comprised of three events — the bench press, the squat and the dead lift. Lifters have three attempts at each event, generally increasing weight with each event. The weights are added together and the lifter with the highest total wins the championship.

Lifters showed their strength, as a new state record was set by Dennis "Niko" Hulslander, a super heavyweight, who bench pressed 562 pounds, and Angelo Poulich, lifting in the 198 pounds class broke a Junior American record, bench pressing 462 pounds.

Poulich, a PSU alumnus, took home second place with a lift of 1703 pounds in his class on Sunday.

"I'm excited to see that my total lift has increased 100 pounds since my appearance in the Junior World Championships in Taiwan, and to qualify for nationals," said Poulich.

Penn State Powerlifting Club had a few of its own compete this weekend. Most lifted to qualify for the National Collegiate Championships, which will be held in two weeks in Louisiana.

"It's great to see Penn State becoming an active participant in the sport of powerlifting," said Seth Abrams, Powerlifting Club President.

Jessi Kirker placed first in the collegiate women's 132 pound division of the meet this weekend.

Although her primary focus was to qualify for nationals, she was more than thrilled to place first.

"It's such a rush," Kirker said. "I'm on a kick and can't wait to continue on to Nationals. The adrenaline rush from the crowd is great. Powerlifting is addicting."

Placing in first with their respective weight classes was Mike Mastrean (198), Don Teets (220), Patrick Johnson (242), Wayne Droesser (275) and Dennis Hulsender (super heavyweight).