Bench-A-Thon 2024 Recap!

 

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We had an amazing event this past Saturday! In its sixth year, our annual Coach DJ’s Memorial Bench-A-Thon was a smashing success. A record 61 lifters of all ages came out to show their one-rep max strength on bench press!

Since 2021, Bench-A-Thon has raised money for our Student Athlete Scholarship Fund. We are proud to announce that we met our goal of raising $10,000! This spring, we will award five student athletes with $2,000 scholarships. It is exciting to see this event continue to grow so we can affect even greater change in our community.

The vibes were especially high this year, with music from our friend DJ Chorizo Funk and all the hype from our MC Krista Bergeron. Many of our trainers competed alongside their clients, which amped up the friendly competition. We were joined again this year by our co-host Chris Tejeda and his super strong crew from Chris Gets U Fit. They added a ton of poundage to our total lifted, as well as a ton of support for our scholarship fund! 

New this year was custom programming for both clients and trainers, courtesy of Coach Sierra Nevels. We know it can take a lot of guts to put yourself out there in a competition, and it is our goal to set our clients up for success! We all enjoyed focusing additional training time on upper body strength and working to improve bench press technique. Training toward a specific goal is a fun and valuable method for encouraging consistency and breaking through plateaus. We love seeing clients compete year after year, always finding ways to improve on their best!

Immense thanks go out to every single person who lifted, worked the event, donated, or came out to watch and support your family and friends! The Austin Simply Fit community is simply the best!

 

This year’s winners are:

Men (30+)
1 – Chris Tejeda
2 – Cory McKane
3 – Michael Hale

Women (30+)
1 – Sierra Nevels
2 – Alex Meyers
3 – Rebecca Lough (tie)
3 – Jackie Tey (tie)
3 – Sekethia Tejeda (tie)

Nonbinary (30+)
1 – Cari Barrentine

Young Adult Men (18-29)
1 – Joel Harries
2 – Samuel John Taylor
3 – Wesley Ogles (tie)
3 – Dan Behnfield (tie)

Young Adult Women (18-29)
1 – Mattie League
2 – Bailee Murray
3 – Sianna Decarli

Youth (13-17)
1 – Sunil Desha